/.dj. 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the 
Mrs.  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy  Church  History  Fund. 


Division 

Section.   2)8.1  


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/historyofmethodiOOdubo_0 


A  HISTORY 


JAN  HI 


OF 


METHODISM 


BEING 

A  VOLUME  SUPPLEMENTAL  TO  "A  HISTORY  OF  METHOD- 
ISM" BY  HOLLAND  N.  Mc  T  YE  IRE,  D.D.,  LATE  ONE 
OF  THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE  METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH 

bringing 

The  Story  of  Methodism,  with  Special,  Reference  to  the 
History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  Down  to  the  Year  1916 


HORACE  M.  DU  BOSE,  D.D. 


Nashville,  Tenn. 
Dallas,  Tex.;  Richmond,  Va. 
Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
Smith  &  Lamar,  Agents 
1916 


Copyright,  1916 

BY 

Smith  &  Lamar 


PEEPACE. 


IT  has  long  been  accepted  as  a  truism  that  no  generation  can  write 
its  own  history.  Time,  it  is  claimed,  must  first  be  left  to  assuage 
the  excesses  of  human  feeling  and  properly  assess  the  merit  of  hu- 
man motives  before  a  just  view  of  any  period  of  thought  or  action  can 
be  taken.  Many  histories  and  historians  of  the  past  contradict  this 
notion;  in  fact,  nearly  all  the  histories  written  in  classic  times  were 
by  men  who  described  the  life,  manners,  and  thought  of  the  genera- 
tions to  which  they  belonged.  The  material  facts  of  history  can  only 
be  recorded  by  the  generation  of  whose  life  they  are  the  output.  A 
philosophy  of  history  becomes  possible  after  the  facts  have  been  passed 
as  new  concepts  through  the  mind  of  a  new  generation,  or  after  experi- 
ence has  tested  their  objective  effect  upon  life.  The  philosopher  looks 
at  history  in  a  long  retrospect,  but  the  annalist  takes  it  fresh  from 
the  arena  of  action.  The  annalist,  therefore,  is  more  essential  to  the 
facts  of  history  than  is  the  philosopher. 

Church  history  is  next  in  importance  to  Church  theology.  A  written 
and  digested  theology  holds  the  Church's  spiritual  life  to  a  standard 
and  abides  as  a  test  of  interpretation.  A  correct  and  current  record 
of  its  history  helps  to  hold  the  functional  and  conventional  life  of  the 
Church  to  a  purpose  and  preserves  the  denominational  spirit  from 
disunity  and  indirection.  The  preponderating  element  in  Church  his- 
tory is  biography,  of  which  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews  is  a  sam- 
ple. This  appeal  of  the  life  personal  becomes  a  reduplicated  gospel  on 
every  page  of  the  Church's  history.  A  long  perspective  is  not  neces- 
sary to  the  portrayal  of  character.  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them."  It  is  in  character  that  history  lives.  If  Luke,  the  close  com- 
panion of  St.  Paul,  had  not  written  his  memoirs,  who,  then,  could 
have  done  it?  Had  they  not  been  written,  who  can  imagine  what  ef- 
fect the  lack  would  have  had  upon  the  gospel?  The  kingdom  of  God 
has  always  appealed  to  its  record;  and  that  record,  without  important 
exception,  has  been  the  work  of  "eyewitnesses." 

The  early  records  of  Methodism  are  often  embarrassingly  imperfect, 
for  the  reason  that  men  were  not  at  hand,  or  were  not  concerned, 
to  set  in  order  the  record  as  it  was  being  made.  The  present-day 
historian  writing  of  those  times  must  depend  upon  the  too  fragmen- 
tary notes  of  conferences  or  such  chance  illumination  as  comes  from 
letters  and  incidental  communications.  Fortunately,  as  time  has 
passed  the  official  records  of  the  Church  have  become  constantly 
fuller,  so  that  there  no  more  exists  a  serious  difficulty  for  the  his- 
torian. Methodism  now  writes  in  its  journals  and  minutes  a  his- 
tory of  its  doings  and  thinking  from  year  to  year.  But  the  very  full- 
ness of  this  record  becomes  to  the  average  student  and  reader  a  diffi- 

(3) 


4 


History  of  Methodism. 


culty  almcst,  if  not  quite,  as  great  as  was  the  old-time  paucity.  These 
records  have  multiplied  until  they  are  no  longer  volumes,  but  tomes 
and  libraries.  The  purse  and  the  book  space  of  the  average  churchman 
do  net  admit  of  the  assembling  of  them;  and  if  they  do,  there  is 
not  time  to  ransack  them  and  set  their  coDtents  in  order.  To  reach 
the  essential  facts  in  these  records  is  the  task  of  straining  gold  from 
the  sands  or  winnowing  wheat  from  the  husks.  The  historian — the 
man  of  a  self-imposed  task  of  patience  and  painstaking  industry — 
must  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  prophet  and  the  reformer;  that  is,  as 
the  servant  of  all  and  out  of  a  sheer  love  of  his  work. 

This  is  the  spirit  in  which  the  present  volume  has  been  written, 
and  these  are  the  incentives  which  have  cheered  and  strengthened  the 
writer  as  he  has  gone  on,  stage  by  stage,  in  the  articulation  of  these 
records  of  a  half  century — the  mightiest  half  century  of  Methodism 
and  the  world.  The  Church  has  long  needed  a  volume  bringing  its 
history  up  to  date,  a  history  full  in  detail  and  faithful  in  taking  ac- 
count of  denominational  spirit  and  labors,  neither  extenuating  through 
sectional  and  sectarian  prejudice  nor  following  the  lead  of  novelty 
and  untested  sentiment.  I  trust  to  have  met  in  some  measure  worthy 
of  approval  the  urgent  need  for  such  a  work  as  has  been  my  ideal, 
and  one  which  may  in  some  small  degree  prove  a  worthy  companion 
to  that  "History"  which  the  Church  has  so  long  and  so  highly  es- 
teemed as  its  masterpiece.  Horace  M.  Du  Bose. 

September  1,  1916. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Page. 

Reestablished  Fraternal  Relations  of  American  Methodism — The 
Centenary  Conference  of  1884 — Significance  of  Post-Bellum  Meth- 
odist History — Fifth  Southern  General  Conference — Lay  Repre- 
sentation and  Other  Legislation — The  Veto  Power  and  the  Con- 
stitution— Accretions  from  Other  Bodies — Beginning  of  Frater- 
nity— Missions  and  the  Colored  Work — Episcopal  Retirements  and 
Elections — Death  of  Bishop  Joshua  Soule — Returning  Prosperity 
—  Worldly  Amusements  —  New  Conference  Lines  —  Publishing 
House  Claim — Sundry  General  Conference  Actions — First  Frater- 
nal Delegation — Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America 
— Southern  General  Conference  of  1878 — Deaths  of  Bishops  and 
Other  Distinguished  Ministers — Elections — 1866-1883   9 

CHAPTER  II. 

Deaths  of  Distinguished  Ministers — Mexican  Missionary — Indian 
Apostle — A  Roster  of  Distinguished  Lay  Methodists — The  First 
Ecumenical  Conference — Dr.  Osborn — Influence  of  the  Ecumeni- 
cal Conference— 1866-1883  (Concluded)   28 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Centenary  Fund — Session  of  the  Centenary  Conference — Con- 
ventional Forces — Literary  Activity — Facing  the  New  Age — A 
Ring  of  Triumph — Colored  Education — Comity  and  Federation — 
General  Conference  Acts — Change  of  Name — Deceased  Bishops — 
Connectional  Elections — The  Hymn  Book — The  Quarterly  Review 
—1884-1889    42 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Fraternal  Visitors — Other  Fallen  Workers — Deaths  of  Leaders  in 
the  North— General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  1888 — Missionary  Epis- 
copate— Methodist  Protestants  and  Lesser  Bodies — Episcopalian- 
ism — Canadian  Methodism — British  Methodism — World  Mission- 
ary Conference — Australia  and  Africa — Colored  Churches — 1884- 
1889  (Concluded)    57 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Young  People's  Movement — Organization  of  the  Epworth 
League — Centennial  of  First  Conferences  Held  in  Mississippi  Val- 
ley— New  England  Centenary — New  York  Book  Concern — Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1890 — Work  in  the  West — Church  Union  in  Ja- 
pan— Jewish  Missions — Education — Board  of  Trustees — Fraternal 
Greeting — Episcopal  and  Other  Elections — Centenary  of  Wesley's 
Death — Second  Ecumenical  Conference — Barnes  Hospital — Scar- 
ritt  Bible  and  Training  School — The  Holiness  Movement — 1890- 
1893    73 

(5) 


6 


History  of  Methodism. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Page. 

k  General  Conference  in  the  West — The  Organic  Law — Revivals 
and  Missions — World's  Fair — First  Ep worth  League  Convention 
— Assemblies — Death  Roll — Canada  Methodism — In  the  Wesleyan 
Connection — Bishop  Galloway,  First  Delegate  to  the  Conference 
in  England— Legal  Hundred— 1800-1893  (Concluded)   92 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Significance  of  the  General  Conference — Twelfth  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South — Fifty  Years  of  His- 
tory— A  Fraternal  Document — The  Epicorth  Era — Sundry  Acts 
of  the  General  Conference — Board  of  Education — The  Veto  Pow- 
er— Federation— 1894-1897    107 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Origin  of  Specific  Legislation — Kelley-Hargrove  Case — District  Con- 
ference Empowered  to  License  Preachers — Insurance — Hague 
Tribunal — Basis  of  Representation — Evangelism — Fraternal  Ad- 
dresses— Elections — Necrology,  North  and  South — General  Con- 
ference in  the  North — Women  Delegates — Seniority — Elections — 
Publication  Crux — Deaconess  Work — Church  in  Canada — British 
Conference — Difficult  Social  Problems — Plymouth — Junior  Socie- 
ties— Depression — Peter  McKenzie — Irish  Conference — Dr.  Mc- 
Cutcheon— South  Africa— Australia— 1894-1897  (Concluded)   124 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Baltimore  and  Early  Methodism — Southern  General  Conference  of 
1898 — Close  of  Century — Statistics — Jubilee  of  Missions — Retire- 
ment of  Bishop  Keener — Report  of  Commission  on  Articles  of  Re- 
ligion— "Candidating" — Andrew  Hunter  —  Legislation  —  Spanish- 
American  War — Death  of  Gladstone — Fraternal  Visitors — Elec- 
tions— Collection  of  War  Claim — History  of  the  Publishing  House 
—History  of  the  Sunday  School  Department— 1898-1901   141 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Christian  Advocate — Death  of  Dr.  David  Morton — Board  of 
Church  Extension — Leaders  of  the  Period — World's  Missionary 
Conference — Twenty-Third  Delegated  General  Conference,  Church 
North— An  Inter-Methodist  Document — Proceedings  of  Confer- 
ence— Church  of  Canada— English  Connection — 1898-1901  (Con- 
cluded)   161 


CHAPTER  XI. 

General  Conference  in  Texas — Total  of  Twentieth-Century  Offering 
— Great  Church  Buildings — A  Trained  and  Equipped  Ministry — 
On  Connectionalism — Order  of  Deaconess — Issues  before  the  Con- 
ference— Cordial  Fraternity — Conference  Greetings — Child  Labor 
— World's  Fair — Board  of  Insurance — Episcopal  Rulings — Review 
Made  a  Quarterly — "Worldly  Amusements" — Reports  cf  Fraternal 
Delegates — Episcopal  and  Other  Elections — Contrast  of  Old  and 
New — Personnel  of  Conference — Historv  of  "War  Claim" — 1902- 
1905    180 


Contents. 


7 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Pane. 

Romance  of  the  Middle  Southwest — Andrew  Hunter— The  Nashville 
Community — Robert  A.  Young — Revival  of  the  Methodist  Review 
— John  W.  Hinton — Men  of  Northern  Birth — W.  M.  Prottsman 
and  Church  Extension — H.  C.  Settle — Experiences  in  Missouri — 
E.  K.  Miller — Samuel  Lander  and  Lander  College — Death  of 
Bishops  Keener  and  Hargrove — J.  D.  Barbee — "The  Apostle  to  the 
Cubans" — John  D.  Vincil — Other  Well-Known  Men — Westward- — 
Northern  General  Conference  of  1904 — Episcopal  Address — The 
New  Century — Superannuation  of  Bishops — Dr.  Kilgo,  Fraternal 
Messenger — A  Constitutional  Question — New  Bishops — Connec- 
tional  Elections — Canadian  Methodism — General  Church  Union  in 
Canada — English  Methodism — English  Leaders — In  Ireland — In 
Australia— 1902-1905  (Concluded)   197 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A  Magic  City — Southern  General  Conference  of  1906 — Southern 
Prosperity — Statistics — Bishops'  Address — Young  J.  Allen — Meth- 
odist Church  of  Japan — Commission  on  Federal  Council  of 
Churches — Colored  Education — Congo  Outrages — A  Colored  Mis- 
sionary— Related  Matters — Jamestown  Tercentenary — San  Fran- 
cisco Earthquake — Vanderbilt  University  Commission — Unifica- 
tion of  Missionary  Boards — Consolidation  of  Church  Papers — Leg- 
islation— Proposed  Restatement  of  Faith — Fraternal  Sessions — 
Episcopal  Elections — Bishops  Tigert  and  Ward — Connectional  Offi- 
cers—P.  H.  Whisner— The  Last  of  the  Patriarchs  of  1844— Bish- 
ops Granbery  and  Smith — Some  Methodist  Historians — Death  of 
Young  J.  Allen— Paul  Whitehead— John  J.  Lafferty— Other  Edi- 
tors—Bishop Duncan— 1906-1909   218 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Death  of  Bishop  Galloway — Sam  P.  Jones — William  E.  Munsey — 
Jacob  Ditzler — Other  Evangelists — Centenary  of  the  Constitution 
— General  Conference,  North — The  Church  and  Prohibition — 
Deaths  —  Many  Tongues  —  Education  —  Labor — Mission  Fields — 
Methodist  Protestants  and  Union — The  New  Statement  of  Faith — 
Memorial  Day — President  Roosevelt — Elections — Fraternal  Ad- 
dress —  Canadian  Methodism  —  British  Wesleyanism  —  English 
Leaders — Irish  Methodism — The  Australasian  Connection — 1906- 
1909  (Concluded)    240 


CHAPTER  XV. 

New-Century  Manifestations — New  Leaders — Spirit  of  the  Method- 
ism of  the  South — Second  Methodist  Body  of  the  World — Property 
— Growth — Government  of  Law — Canada  and  Bishop  Soule — Laity 
Rights — Tobacco — African  Mission — Retirement  of  Bishop  Key — 
Bishop  Fitzgerald  —  Fraternal  Addresses  —  Japanese  Church — 
Prince  Yun — Episcopal  and  Other  Elections — Consolidation  of 
Missionary  Boards  and  Societies — History  of  Church  Missions— 
1910-1913    262 


s 


History  of  Methodism. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


Page. 


The  Vanderbilt  University  Case — History  of  "Central  University" — 
The  Memphis  Convention — Charter  Granted — Commodore  Vander- 
bilt's  Gift — Action  of  the  Conferences — A  New  Chancellor — Gen- 
eral Conference  Made  Sole  Member  of  Vanderbilt  University  Cor- 
poration— Period  of  Alienation  Begins — Action  of  General  Confer- 
ence of  1906 — Vanderbilt  Commission  Appointed — Commission  Re- 
ports— Visitorial  Powers — Attempt  to  Pass  Bill  in  Tennessee  Leg- 
islature— Action  of  General  Conference  of  1910 — Suit  Begun  by 
Bishops — Chancery  Court  Decides  for  the  Church  —Sweeping  Vic- 
tory— Appeal  by  Trustees — A  Million  Dollars  Solicited  by  Chan- 
cellor— Given  on  Condition  that  the  Trustees  Should  Win  Suit — 
Church  Loses  Suit  in  Highest  State  Court — Action  of  General 
Conference  of  1914 — A  Broader  Educational  Platform  for  the 
Church— Victory  Out  of  Wrong  and  Defeat— 1910-1913  (Con- 
tinued)   288 


"Comity  and  Federation" — Two  Soldiers — Historians — Other  Nota- 
bles— World  Missionary  Conference — Canadian  General  Confer- 
ence of  1910 — General  Superintendents — Acts  of  Conference — Elec- 
tions— Centenary  of  the  Constitution — General  Conference,  North 
— Deaths  of  Bishops — Acts  of  the  Conference — Negro  Bishops — 
Age  Limit — New  Bishops — Other  Elections — Wesleyan  Conference 
Sittings — King's  Oath — Membership  Discussion — Obituaries — In- 
cidents of  the  Sessions — Australasian  Methodism — Fourth  Ecu- 
menical Conference— World  Address— 1910-1913  (Concluded)   322 


A  Deceptive  Peace — Pragmatism — General  Conference  of  1914 — 
Episcopal  Address  —  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  —  Federal 
Council — Student  Volunteer  Movement — Junaluska — The  Vander- 
bilt Case — New  Universities — Retirement  of  Bishop  Wilson — Sen- 
ior Bishop — National  Prohibition — Mexico — Pan-American  Exposi- 
tion— Lay  Leaders — Japan  Methodism — Committee  on  Appeals — 
Limited  Episcopacy — Evangelism — Board  of  Education — Apostles' 
Creed — Order  of  Worshin — New  Conferences — Fifth  Ecumenical — 
Elections — Fraternal  Messages — Death  Roll — Canadian  Method- 
ism—English Methodism — Conclusion— 1914-1916    350 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences 


380 


CHAPTER  XX. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences  (Continued) 


426 


CHAPTER  XXL 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism 


474 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press  

Appendix:  Colleges  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Chv.rch.  South. 


551 


573 


HISTORY  OF  METHODISM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Reestablished  Fraternal  Relations  of  American  Methodism — The  Cente- 
nary Conference  of  1884 — Significance  of  Post-Bellum  Methodist  His- 
tory— Fifth  Southern  General  Conference — Lay  Representation  and 
Other  Legislation — The  Veto  Power  and  the  Constitution — Accretions 
from  Other  Bodies — Beginning  of  Fraternity — Missions  and  the  Col- 
ored Work — Episcopal  Retirements  and  Elections — Death  of  Bishop 
Joshua  Soule — Returning  Prosperity — Worldly  Amusements — New 
Conference  Lines — Publishing  House  Claim — Sundry  General  Confer- 
ence Actions — First  Fraternal  Delegation — Colored  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  in  America — Southern  General  Conference  of  1878 — Deaths 
of  Bishops  and  Other  Distinguished  Ministers — Elections — 1866-1883. 

THE  concluding  chapter  of  the  "History  of  Methodism,"  by 
Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire,  contains  an  account  of  the  re- 
established fraternal  relations  of  American  Episcopal  Meth- 
odism and  of  the  newly  instituted  movement  looking  toward 
cooperation  and  the  fruits  of  unity.  This  recital,  conducted  in 
the  fine  narrative  style  of  its  author,  proved  a  happy  climax 
for  his  task.  It  pointed  to  a  stage  set  for  the  action  of  a  new 
time;  it  signaled  the  coming  of  an  era  of  historic  readjust- 
ment and  expansion.  The  use  made  of  his  opportunity  by  the 
historian  stamped  him  as  having  been  providentially  selected 
for  his  office  and  fixed  his  work  as  a  standard  for  the  judgment 
of  times  to  be.  He  found  in  the  facts  with  which  he  dealt  a 
vantage  from  which  to  review  the  sweep  of  the  first  hundred 
years  of  American  Methodist  history  and  to  look  prophetically 
forward  to  a  future  of  conquest  and  settlement.  As  a  seer  he 
abated  no  title  or  claim  of  the  past,  but  in  his  vision  saw  the 
cause  and  protest  of  his  people  vindicated  in  the  perfect  unities 
and  consistencies  of  that  last  for  which  the  first  was  made. 

The  terminus  ad  quern  of  Bishop  McTyeire's  History  was  the 
Centenary  Conference,  called  to  meet  in  Baltimore  December  7- 
17,  18S4,  in  time  and  place  agreeing  with  the  Christmas  Confer- 
ence of  a  hundred  years  before.  Tn  the  proceedings  of  this 
Conference  was  read  an  earnest  of  the  fraternity  and  mutual 

(9) 


LO 


History  <>)  Methodism. 


triumphs  of  the  new  Methodist  age.  It  became  a  focal  of  his- 
tory, ;i  prism  of  fellowship  and  concession  through  which  the 
light  destined  to  illumine  the  paths  of  millions  was  passed  for 
sifting  and  restitution.  The  hour  of  a  new  noon  had  struck. 
The  long-repressed  spirit  of  Methodism  found  an  opportunity 
to  assert  itself.  With  constantly  accumulating  force  it  has 
asserted  itself  to  the  present  hour. 

History  is  a  syllogism  in  which  the  time  element  is  the  major 
premise.  Definitively,  Wesleyan  theology  and  ideal  spoke  them- 
selves into  the  problems  and  realizations  of  the  early  religions 
and  social  life  of  the  republic,  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  days 
of  the  present — more  comprehensively  described  as  the  years 
succeeding  the  War  between  the  States — to  discover  the  true 
potency  of  Methodism,  its  historic  vantage,  its  reactions  upon 
its  own  multiform  differentiations,  its  direct  and  reflex  in- 
fluences on  national  life,  and  its  prophetic  share  in  that  life 
"centuries  or  perhaps  millenniums  hence."  If  it  be  true,  as 
Macaulay  and  Lecky  have  agreed,  that  the  history  of  modern 
England  cannot  be  written  without  reference  to  John  Wesley 
and  the  work  which  he  did  in  the  United  Kingdom,  no  less 
is  it  true  that  the  history  of  these  Western  commonwealths 
cannot  be  correctly  recorded  without  large  and  due  credit  to 
that  "Society"  which  John  Wesley  gave  to  America  near  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Like  another  mountain  of 
transfiguration,  that  Society  looms  over  the  terrane  of  Ameri- 
can history.  In  the  lengthening  vistas  of  a  century  and  a  half 
its  outline  grows  ever  more  distinct.  The  dissevered  connec- 
tions of  American  Methodism  to-day  easily  hold  the  secret 
which  is  the  prophetic  balance  in  American  unity  and  religious 
and  social  ideal.  What  American  Methodism  owes  to  itself 
to-day  it  owes  not  less  to  the  nation  and  to  the  wider  kingdom 
of  God.  It  would  be  easy  to  moralize  at  length  on  the  rela- 
tions and  conjunctions  of  the  history  which  we  have  set  out  to 
write,  but  the  facts  themselves,  when  properly  ordered,  will  suf- 
ficiently emphasize  their  own  importance  and  enforce  their 
own  teaching.  This  sentiment  lives,  an  inarticulate  undertone, 
in  the  closing  chapters  of  Bishop  McTyeire's  History.  It  is  to 
become  a  distinct  and  overt  utterance  in  this  addendum. 

Of  the  important  events  of  the  twenty  years  preceding  the 


Fifth  General  Conference. 


II 


centenary  period  of  American  Methodism,  Bishop  McTyeire  has 
given  but  a  brief  summary  in  his  work.  For  this  reason,  and 
properly  to  relate  this  section  of  the  narrative  to  that  which 
goes  before,  it  becomes  necessary  to  review  these  events  with 
some  degree  of  particularity.  This  review  will  also  serve  to 
throw  into  relief  and  unity  the  whole  history  of  the  American 
Church,  and  particularly  that  of  the  South,  during  its  most 
interesting  and  significant  period. 

The  fifth  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South  (being  the  twentieth  General  Conference  since 
the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America 
in  1784*),  met  in  New  Orleans  April  4,  1866.  What  should 
have  been  the  fifth  General  Conference  was  scheduled  to  meet 
in  the  same  city  in  May,  1862;  but  it  did  not  assemble,  the 
date  fixed  for  its  sitting  having  fallen  at  the  height  of  the  War 
between  the  States.  At  the  session  of  1866  there  were  present 
one  hundred  and  forty-nine  delegates,  representing  twenty-five 
Annual  Conferences.  In  this  number  were  included  the  Rio 
Grande  Conference,  organized  in  1858,  and  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference, which,  having  separated  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  in  1860,  united  with 
the  Church,  South,  in  1835.  The  action  of  Bishop  Early  in 
receiving  this  Conference  into  the  Connection  was  approved, 
and  its  delegates  were  formally  seated.  The  Rev.  Jacob  Ditz- 
ler,  from  the  Christian  Union  Church,  was  received  on  the 
footing  of  a  fraternal  delegate,  when  he  began  negotiations 
which  resulted  in  the  Church  to  which  he  belonged  becoming 
the  Illinois  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  session  the  Episcopal  Address  was 
read.  It  vividly  reviewed  the  history  of  the  Church  during 
the  eight  preceding  years,  half  of  which  years  had  been  marked 
by  the  devastations  of  war.  The  bishops  explained  that,  when 
it  was  impossible  to  call  a  General  Conference,  they  had  con- 
sulted with  the  Book  Committee  and  other  representatives  on 
Church  policies,  and  that,  after  the  war — that  is,  in  August. 

♦Journal  of  General  Conference  of  1894.  This  notation  will  be  ob- 
served throughout  this  history.    It  is  a  settled  record  of  the  Church. 


12 


History  of  Methodism. 


18C5 — a  general  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Bishops  had  been 
called  for  special  consultation.  They  had  assumed  great  re- 
sponsibilities and  had  undertaken  some  things  not  strictly 
within  constitutional  limits,  but  war  had  laid  upon  them  a 
necessity  which  permitted  no  other  choice.  In  this  the  wisdom 
of  the  episcopal  office  was  fully  demonstrated.  The  Church 
had  held  together  and  had  gone  forward  despite  the  rage  of 
war.  A  new  hope  had  come  after  strife.  The  revival  of  the 
Church  papers  and  the  renewal  of  the  general  publication  work 
of  the  Connection  had  stimulated  a  new  purpose  and  drawn 
the  scattered  elements  together.  The  sadly  wasted  condition 
of  the  Church's  colleges  and  schools  was  the  cause  of  deepest 
concern.  The  need  of  education  was  never  more  certainly  felt, 
and  both  the  Church  and  the  social  community  recognized  the 
necessity  for  self-reliance.  It  was  the  riddle  of  Samson.  Out 
of  the  weak  must  come  strength ;  out  of  the  bitter  must  come 
sweet.  The  land  was  filled  with  orphans  and  poverty.  The 
means  of  educating  the  one  must  be  drawn  from  the  pleni- 
tude of  the  other. 

The  question  of  lay  representation  was  easily  the  command- 
ing issue  before  the  General  Conference.  The  new  Methodism 
of  the  land  was  prefigured  in  this  old-new  departure.  It  was 
also  foreseen  that  the  episcopal  office  must  be  considerably 
strengthened,  and  not  before  in  the  history  of  any  of  the 
houses  of  Methodism  had  such  deep  concern  been  felt  regard- 
ing the  men  who  were  to  be  set  apart  for  this  responsibility. 
Israel  was  never  before  so  much  in  need  of  a  strong  leader- 
ship. But  the  men  had  been  in  making  through  a  prevenient 
providence  and  were  within  reach,  though  at  that  particular 
moment  at  least  one  of  them  was  hid  amongst  the  stuff  in  a 
far-distant  place. 

So  many  and  so  great  were  the  prospective  changes  in  polity 
and  so  strong  was  the  demand  for  changing  the  name  of  the 
Church  that  a  special  committee,  known  as  the  Committee  on 
Economy,  was  appointed  to  consider  memorials  and  other 
papers  relating  to  these  matters.  \  strong  petition  requested 
the  adoption  of  a  form  for  the  reception  of  members  into  the 
Church.  This  paper  had  due  consideration  and  accounts  for  the 
very  impressive  present-day  completeness  of  our  Church  ritual 


Constitutional  Questions. 


at  that  point.  It  early  became  evident  that  the  measure  of 
lay  representation  would  be  adopted;  also  that  the  pastoral 
term  would  either  be  extended  or  the  limit  taken  off  entirely. 
That  the  name  of  the  Church  would  be  changed,  so  far  as  the 
General  Conference  had  power  to  change  it,  was  a  foregone 
judgment.  After  days  of  debate  on  each  of  these  three  points, 
lay  representation,  championed  by  H.  N.  McTyeire  and  others, 
was  adopted  practically  in  the  form  of  the  present  clauses  on 
that  subject  in  the  chapters  of  the  Discipline  concerning  the 
government  of  the  Annual  and  General  Conferences.  Under 
the  constitution,  the  measure  went  to  the  Annual  Conferences 
for  a  three-fourths  vote  and  was  adopted  in  1867.  The  General 
Conference  voted  to  change  the  name  of  the  Church  to  "The 
Episcopal  Methodist  Church,"  but  the  measure  failed  of  con- 
firmation when  later  presented  to  the  Annual  Conferences. 
The  body  also  actually  voted  by  a  clear  majority  to  remove  the 
time  limit  from  the  pastorate  and  also  resolved  to  refer  it  to 
the  Annual  Conferences  for  confirmation;  but  before  adjourn- 
ment the  vote  was  reconsidered,  and  the  term  was  changed 
from  two  to  four  years,  as  it  now  stands. 

Rev.  W.  A.  Smith,  D.D.,  the  author  of  the  so-called  "Bishops' 
Veto"  in  the  General  Conference  of  1854,  and  who  saw  a  de- 
fect in  the  provision  adopted — namely,  that  not  the  Board  of 
Bishops,  but  the  body  of  traveling  elders  or  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences, are  the  real  veto  power — sought  to  correct  the  defect ; 
but  his  effort  failed,  and  the  present  veto  law  was  not  success- 
fully enacted  until  1870.  Dr.  L.  M.  Lee,  of  Virginia,  was  the 
author  of  the  final  draft.  A  fuller  review  of  this  legislation 
will  be  given  in  a  later  chapter.  A  subject  kindred  to  this  was 
taken  up  at  the  same  time  and  expressed  in  a  resolution  asking 
the  bishops  to  prepare  a  commentary  on  the  Book  of  Discipline. 
This  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  origin  of  the  present-day 
"Manual  of  the  Discipline,"  a  volume  the  va^ue  of  which  has 
been  attested  through  nearly  half  a  century.  In  this  connection 
also  it  may  be  noted  that  at  this  sitting:  Dr.  J.  Hamilton,  of 
Alabama,  prospnted  a  resolution  asking;  for  the  identification 
of  the  constitution.  Thus  early  was  felt  the  need  of  defining: 
the  Church's  fundamental  law,  but  it  remains  undefined  to  the 
present  day.    About  this  also  there  remains  not  a  little  to  be 


1 1 


History  of  Methodism. 


said  in  the  course  of  this  history.  While  in  a  legal  mood  the 
General  Conference  declared  by  formal  resolution  that  the 
Church  "stood  aloof  from  party  politics"  and  must  not  inter- 
meddle in  ' political  affairs,  which  at  bottom  is  a  sound  prin- 
ciple, but  has  needed  and  received  very  constant  explication  in 
later  times. 

One  of  the  features  of  this  Conference,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  was  the  number  and  strength  of  the  several  accretions 
which  came  to  the  connectional  body.  On  the  fourth  day  of 
the  session  a  communication  was  received  from  the  Mississippi 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  proposing  or- 
ganic union.  This  communication  was  favorably  considered, 
and  the  action  soon  resulted  in  the  coming  into  the  Connection 
of  a  considerable  body  of  members  and  ministers  from  thai 
communion. 

On  the  same  day  a  fraternal  message  was  received  from  the 
New  York  East  Conference  of  the  Church,  North,  suggesting 
the  subject  of  fraternity  and  reunion.  A  courteous  and  formal 
response  was  made  to  the  same  in  which  the  position  of  the 
Church,  South,  was  plainly  stated,  which  was  that  fraternity 
must  be  established  before  union  could  be  discussed.  No 
further  steps  were  taken  looking  to  this  end  until  1870,  when 
Bishop  Janes  and  Dr.  W.  L.  Harris,  of  the  Church,  North, 
appeared  before  the  Conference  with  a  communication  from  a 
Hoard  of  Commissioners  appointed  by  that  Church  to  "treat 
with  other  Methodist  Churches  on  the  subject  of  union."  The 
visitors  were  cordially  received,  as  had  been  the  former  com- 
munication. Interchanges  of  views  were  had  between  them  and 
the  Conference;  but  as  the  Conference  judged  that  the  letter  of 
their  appointment  did  not  authorize  such  formal  offer  as  w:is 
made,  no  action  beyond  a  fraternal  recognition  was  taken. 
The  incident,  however,  wTas  felicitous  and  led  to  a  formal  fra- 
ternal visitation  at  the  ensuing  session. 

The  missionary  work  of  the  Church  was  at  this  time  divided 
into  "foreign  and  domestic"  boards.  The  war  had  all  but 
wrecked  the  Church's  missions  and  had  entailed  upon  the 
Board  a  heavy  debt.  This  debt  was  provided  for,  and  new 
plans  were  laid  for  the  future.  Tn  nothing  did  the  wasted  and 
burdened  Church  show  more  spirit  than  in  planning  for  the 


Ante-Bellum  Missionary  Debt — Colored  Work. 


L5 


payment  of  its  missionary  debt  and  for  new  and  larger  en- 
deavors. This  missionary  debt  bad  behind  it  a  unique  and  in- 
structive history.  As  far  back  as  1855  the  Board  had  entered 
into  a  formal  arrangement  with  the  Agents  of  the  Book  Con- 
cern of  the  Church,  North,  to  indorse  or  countersign  its  drafts 
sent  out  to  the  missionaries  in  China.  This  plan  worked  with- 
out embarrassment  nntil  1861.  When  the  drafts  for  18G0 
reached  New  York,  the  war  had  already  broken  out,  and  inter- 
course between  the  North  and  South  had  ceased.  Efforts  either 
for  collection  or  payment  would  have  been  fruitless.  The  obli- 
gation, aggregating  in  all  abont  |10,000,  was  placed  by  the 
New  York  Agents  on  their  suspended  account.  So  soon  after 
the  war  as  the  forces  of  the  Church  could  be  rallied,  the  South- 
ern Board  collected  the  money  and  put  it  into  the  hands  of  an 
agent  to  liquidate  the  debt.  But  the  funds  were  in  some  way 
dissipated.  Almost  immediately,  however,  the  amount  was 
again  raised  and  paid  to  the  Book  Concern  by  the  then  Secre- 
tary of  Missions,  Dr.  Alpheus  W.  Wilson,  now  senior  bishop  of 
the  Church.* 

The  cause  of  the  colored  people  engaged  a  large  and  tender 
interest  of  the  whole  Church  and  was  given  careful  considera- 
tion by  the  General  Conference.  An  elaborate  plan  was  devised 
for  organizing  them  into  circuits,  missions,  districts,  and  An- 
nual Conferences,  and  ultimately  into  a  General  Conference  to 
bear  a  close  relation  to  the  Southern  Church.    This  was  the 


♦Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  who  had  direct  information  and  personal  knowl- 
edge of  these  facts,  in  a  letter  to  Zion's  Herald  (Boston),  under  date 
of  March  29,  1916,  after  reciting  the  details  of  the  case,  as  above,  says: 
"But  the  unexpected  occurred.  When  the  last  drafts  for  1860  got  back 
to  the  United  States,  war  had  broken  out,  and  all  intercourse  between 
the  North  and  the  South  was  suspended;  wherefore,  to  protect  his  own 
credit  as  well  as  ours,  Dr.  Carlton,  the  Senior  Book  Agent,  paid  the 
drafts — about  $10,000,  as  I  remember.  But  he  was  so  much  afraid  of 
being  censured  for  doing  it  that  he  charged  the  item  as  a  debit  against 
Brown  Brothers,  of  London,  through  whom  his  affairs  in  the  Orient 
were  conducted,  and  then  carried  it  to  the  suspended  assets  account. 
Thus  it  stood  till  the  close  of  the  war.  But  at  the  very  first  meeting  of 
our  Board  of  Missions  after  the  war,  plans  were  made  to  reimburse  the 
Book  Concern  and  relieve  the  embarrassment  of  Dr.  Carlton,  whose  ac- 
tion in  the  premises  was  highly  appreciated." 


in 


History  of  Methodism. 


origin  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  about  which 
a  complete  record  remains  to  be  entered. 

Because  of  their  age  and  infirmities,  Bishops  Andrew  and 
Early  were  retired  from  the  active  responsibilities  of  the  epis- 
copacy. An  unsuccessful  effort  was  made  to  establish  dis- 
trict, or  diocesan,  episcopacy,  an  institution  which  has  found 
little  sympathy  with  those  who  have  written  Methodist  law 
and  constitution.  The  Conference,  having  decided  to  elect 
four  additional  bishops,  in  due  time  ordered  a  ballot,  with  the 
following  results:  On  the  first  ballot  William  M.  TVightman 
and  Enoch  M.  Marvin  were  elected,  and  on  the  third  ballot 
David  S.  Doggett  and  Holland  X.  McTyeire  were  named.  After 
the  ordination  of  the  four  bishops-elect  and  the  retirement  of 
Bishops  Andrew  and  Early,  a  resolution  was  offered  asking  for 
the  election  of  a  fifth  bishop,  but  it  failed  of  adoption.  The 
election  of  connectional  officers  resulted  as  follows :  Book 
Agent,  A.  H.  Bedford;  Book  Editor,  T.  O.  Summers;  Mission- 
ary Secretary,  E.  W.  Sehon ;  Secretary  Board  of  Domestic- 
Missions,  J.  B.  McFerrin. 

The  year  which  followed  the  famous  General  Conference  of 
1866  w^as  doubly  saddened  to  the  people  called  Methodists  by 
reason  of  the  death  of  their  great  bishop,  Joshua  Soule,  which 
occurred  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  March  6,  1867,  in  the  eighty- 
sixth  year  of  his  life  and  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  itinerant 
ministry.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  spoken  of  as  being 
probably  the  oldest  traveling  preacher  in  America,  if  not  the 
oldest  in  the  world.  His  mighty  personality  was  the  link  be- 
tween the  days  of  Asbury  and  the  fathers  and  those  of  the  men 
who  mourned  his  absence  from  their  fellowship.  From  almost 
every  viewpoint  of  his  character  he  was  a  remarkable  man, 
distinguished  for  qualities  of  natural  greatness  and  for  the 
attainment  of  strength  in  conviction,  purpose,  and  thought. 
His  chief  distinction — the  greatest  which  can  be  claimed  for 
any  American  Methodist — was  that  of  being  the  author  of  the 
Church's  constitution.  He  had  occupied  many  of  the  highest 
positions  of  the  Church  and  had  been  the  preeminent  figure  in 
all  the  great  connectional  controversies  from  1820  down  to 
IS  14.  His  adhesion  to  the  cause  of  the  South  was  character- 
istic of  his  temper  and  judgment.    As  a  preacher,  though  not 


BisJwp  Soule — Period  of  Activity. 


17 


absolutely  great,  he  ranked  amongst  the  most  effective  ex- 
pounders of  the  Word.  He  was  unswerving  in  his  fidelity  to 
principle,  blamelessly  pure  and  devout,  attaining  to  the  estate 
of  perfect  sainthood.  His  life  was  one  of  exceptional  useful- 
ness, his  end  simple  and  marked  by  a  sublime  triumph  of  faith. 

The  last  time  Bishop  Soule  appeared  in  the  General  Con- 
ference was  at  the  famous  session  held  in  1858  in  the  Hall  of 
Representatives  of  the  Tennessee  Capitol.  He  was  then  in  all 
but  the  completest  sense  a  superannuate,  and  yet  he  was  able 
to  be  in  more  or  less  constant  attendance  upon  the  sittings. 
In  that  now  famous  work  of  art,  the  steel  engraving  by  Buttre, 
of  New  York,  which  shows  the  Conference  of  1858  in  one  of  its 
sittings,  his  majestic  face  and  form  assert  a  silent  primacy 
over  the  assembly  of  leaders.  By  resolution  of  the  Conference, 
he  was  asked  to  preach  at  some  hour  during  the  session  when 
his  strength  would  seem  to  admit  of  the  necessary  physical 
exertion.  This  he  agreed  to  do,  but  no  indication  can  be  found 
in  the  Journal  that  he  was  ever  able  to  fulfill  his  promise. 
The  benediction  of  his  presence  was  to  his  brethren  more  elo- 
quent and  effective  than  any  sermon  could  have  been.  His  life 
had  been  a  sermon  which  called  through  all  men's  hearts.* 

The  Church  had  now  entered  upon  a  period  of  pronounced 
spiritual  activity  and  experience.  The  impoverished  financial 
condition  of  the  South  and  the  disturbed  state  of  its  industries 
seemed  to  emphasize  the  sense  of  general  need  for  spiritual 
enlargement.  A  sound  of  revival  was  heard  from  one  border 
to  the  other.  The  connectional  journals  teemed  with  news  of 
a  fruitful  evangelism.  The  bishops  sent  out  an  address  ex- 
horting the  Church  to  a  consideration  of  the  doctrine  of  "per- 
fect love."  The  membership  was  urged  to  "go  on  to  this  per- 
fection of  sanctifying  grace."  The  old  Wesleyan  doctrines 
were  being  preached  in  their  purity.  No  glosses  had  been 
invoked  to  soften  their  terms.  The  age  of  internal  contro- 
versy had  not  yet  come.  Controversial  gusts  raged  without, 
but  all  was  quiet  within.  The  discussion  of  "water  baptism" 
by  the  immersionists  and  a  lingering  contest  with  the  Calvin- 
ists  over  the  decrees,  and  the  always-argued  fiction  of  "apos- 


2 


*"Life  of  Joshua  Soule." 


18 


History  of  Methodism. 


tolic  succession,"  only  served  to  make  the  lines  of  Methodism 
more  distinct  both  in  polity  and  doctrine.  Later  the  swollen 
waters  and  the  boisterous  winds  of  outside  disputation  were  to 
be  assuaged  and  all  but  silenced  in  the  presence  of  factional 
differences  over  the  Wesleyan  teachings  of  perfect  love.  Hap- 
pily, however,  both  have  fallen  into  a  common  ebb. 

At  the  General  Conference  which  met  in  Memphis  in  1870 
a  pastoral  address  was  ordered  to  be  prepared.  It  was  the 
forerunner  of  that  of  1874,  which  dealt  with  the  subject  of 
worldly  amusements  and  was  later  given  the  force  of  a  statute, 
being  printed  in  the  Book  of  Discipline.  At  the  latter  session 
the  bishops  were  asked  to  take  the  matter  in  hand  and  elab- 
orate a  letter  on  the  several  subjects  of  class  meetings,  private 
and  family  prayer,  fasting,  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
on  worldly  amusements.  This  letter  was  also  printed  in  the 
Book  of  Discipline  and  remained  there  during  successive  quad- 
renniums.  It  is  one  of  the  best  known  of  our  official  papers, 
but  w^as  finally  removed  from  the  Discipline,  perhaps  through 
the  conviction  that  the  General  Bules  sufficiently  cover  all  the 
matters  discussed  therein  and  that  special  legislation  is  un- 
wise, more  particularly  that  expressed  in  inhibitive  terms. 
The  Church  is  unqualifiedly  opposed  to  sinful  social  practices 
and  worldly  amusements  which  in  any  way  militate  against 
the  high  standard  of  Christian  experience  and  purity  in 
thought  and  manners.  It  occupies  unchangeably  the  old  posi- 
tion of  Wesley  and  the  fathers,  the  position  expressed  in  the 
General  Rules. 

Xew  Annual  Conference  lines  began  now  to  be  extensively 
laid  out.  The  Western  North.  Carolina  Conference  was  au- 
thorized to  be  erected.  The  first  Mission  Conference  in  Mexico 
was  planned.  The  Columbia  Conference  was  set  off  from  the 
Pacific  Conference,  leaving  as  the  territory  of  the  former 
the  vast  undeveloped  field  in  the  States  of  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington. The  name  of  the  Wichita  Conference  was  changed 
to  that  of  the  Little  Rock  Conference.  The  order  for  these 
latter  changes  originated  in  a  former  General  Conference. 
A  special  permit  was  voted  the  bishops  to  erect  Annual 
Conferences  in  any  part  of  the  United  States  where  there  was 
not  then  already  a  Conference  of  the  Church,  South.  This 


Sundry  General  Conference  Actions. 


authority  resulted  in  the  early  erection  of  a  Conference  in  the 
State  of  Indiana.  The  bishops  were  also  authorized  to  appoint 
continuously  Dr.  Charles  F.  Deems  to  be  pastor  of  the  Church 
of  the  Strangers  in  New  York  City,  which  Church  at  this  time 
existed  as  an  extension  of  the  pastorate  of  the  Southern  Con- 
nection. 

A  question  in  apposition  arising,  the  bishops  decided  that 
one  General  Conference  cannot  pass  by  a  majority  vote  a 
measure  which  requires  a  two-thirds  vote  of  a  succeeding  Gen- 
eral Conference  to  amend  or  alter.  It  may  be  pertinently  writ- 
ten here  that  the  episcopal  veto,  reference  to  which  has  al- 
ready been  made  and  about  which,  in  the  way  of  future  devel- 
opment, a  record  yet  remains,  was  at  this  time  formally  passed. 

The  war  claim  of  the  Publishing  House,  which  was  finally 
settled  in  1808,  took  shape  at  this  time  in  a  report  from  the 
Committee  on  Books  and  Periodicals,  recommending  that  "a 
commission  be  appointed  by  the  General  Conference  to  present 
and  prosecute  a  claim  for  rents  and  damage  to  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  against  the  government  of  the 
United  States."  The  Book  Agent  was  authorized  to  begin 
the  publication  of  the  Southern  Monthly  Magazine,  for  which 
financial  provision  was  made,  as  also  for  the  printing  of  a  new 
edition  of  the  Hymn  and  Tune  Book,  the  compiling  of  which 
was  given  to  a  commission. 

The  most  distinguishing  action  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1870 — an  action  that  might  well  distinguish  the  proceedings 
of  any  body — was  the  election  to  the  episcopacy  of  Rev.  John 
Christian  Keener,  D.D.,  of  the  Louisiana  Conference.  It  was 
the  only  election  ordered,  and  Dr.  Keener  was  chosen  on  the 
third  ballot.  A  man  of  lionlike  spirit  and  faith,  he  gave  to 
the  Church  in  this  office  many  years  of  illustrious  and  his- 
toric service. 

In  the  election  of  connectional  officers,  which  followed  the 
vote  for  bishop,  Dr.  A.  H.  Bedford,  Book  Agent,  Dr.  T.  O. 
Summers,  Book  Editor  and  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate, 
and  Dr.  J.  B.  McFerrin,  Missionary  Secretary,  were  reelected. 
Dr.  W.  P.  Harrison  was  made  Editor  of  the  Southern  Monthly. 

In  the  new  quadrennium,.  which  began  in  1870  and  closed  in 
1874,  wonderful  progress  was  noted  in  church-building,  both 


20 


History  of  Methodism', 


as  to  the  number  of  bouses  and  the  style  of  architecture.  A 
new  spirit  and  inspiration  bad  also  come  into  the  Church's 
educational  work.  The  munificent  gift  of  Commodore  Vander- 
bilt  for  the  founding  of  a  Church  university  had  raised  the 
hope  of  the  whole  Connection  and  had  ripened  into  enthusiasm 
and  rejoicing.  Peace  and  prosi>erity  were  again  coming  to  the 
whole  land;  dissent  and  resistance  inside  the  Church  were  al- 
most wholly  unknown.  One  of  the  certain  signs  of  general 
advance  Avas  expressed  in  the  desire  for  the  organization  of  a 
Woman's  Missionary  Society,  but  favorable  action  was  not 
taken  in  this  matter  until  some  years  later — that  is,  in  1878. 
The  general  missionary  spirit  was  rising,  and  a  corresponding 
faith  was  reaching  out  to  plan  for  new  fields  and  possibilities. 
A  mission  for  Guatemala  was  considered.  The  Brazilian  Mis- 
sion was  ordered  to  be  begun,  and  it  was  decided  that  one  of 
the  bishops  should  visit  China.  This  commission  fell  to  Bishop 
Marvin,  whose  official  journey  to  the  Orient — the  first  ever 
made  by  a  Southern  bishop — became  famous  in  the  history 
of  the  Church.  The  bishops  were  ordered  to  ordain  native 
preachers  on  the  foreign  fields.  The  Denver  Conference  was 
created.  It  consisted  of  the  States  of  Colorado  and  New  Mex- 
ico. At  the  same  time  the  Montana  Conference  was  ordered 
to  be  erected.  The  name  of  the  West  St.  Louis  Conference  was 
changed  to  the  Southwest  Missouri.  The  name  of  Trinity  Con- 
ference was  changed  to  the  North  Texas  Conference.  The 
State  of  Indiana,  except  New  Albany  and  Jeffersonville,  in  the 
Louisville  Conference,  was  placed  in  the  Illinois  Conference. 
The  German  work  in  Texas  and  Louisiana  was  erected  into 
an  independent  Conference  known  as  the  German  Mission  Con- 
ference. 

The  first  formally  appointed  fraternal  delegation  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
to  the  Church,  South,  appeared  at  the  General  Conference  of 
1874.  It  consisted  of  the  following-named:  Dr.  A.  S.  Hunt, 
Dr.  C.  H.  Fowler,  and  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk.  These  distin- 
guished brethren  were  introduced  to  the  Conference  and  de- 
livered addresses  couched  in  the  most  fraternal  terms  and 
"characterized  by  excellent  taste  and  great  ability."  It  was 
the  real  beginning  of  fraternal  relations  between  the  two 


Formal  Fraternity — Colored  Methodist  Church.  '21 


Churches.  The  General  Conference  adopted  a  lengthy  reply, 
responding  in  terms  cordially  fraternal  and  reciting  the  whole 
history  of  the  "Separation"  and  the  negotiations  between  the 
two  bodies.  The  Conference  also  created  a  commission,  to 
meet  a  similar  commission  from  the  Church,  North,  to  adjust 
all  differences  between  the  two  bodies  and  to  settle  a  basis  of 
formal  fraternity.  To  this  request  the  General  Conference  of 
the  Church,  North,  responded  in  187C,  and  the  joint  delegations 
became  the  famous  "Cape  May  Commission." 

The  bishops  reported,  to  this  General  Conference  the  success- 
ful establishment  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Church  and  the 
holding  of  its  first  General  Conference,  in  which,  as  the  bishops 
declared,  the  best  religious  welfare  of  the  colored  people  in 
the  Southern  States  was  involved.  They  recommended  that 
the  Church,  South,  aid  the  people  of  color  to  build  up  needed 
schools.  In  this  recommendation  began  the  history  of  Lane 
Institute  and  Paine  College.  A  collection  was  at  once  taken 
for  beginning  a  fund  for  building  and  endowment. 

The  negro  race  had  no  truer  friend  than  Bishop  James  O. 
Andrew.  It  is,  therefore,  a  significant  sequence  that  the  rec- 
ord of  his  death  falls  in  its  order  after  the  recital  contained 
in  the  above  paragraph.  He  died  in  the  city  of  Mobile  March 
2,  1871,  that  day  being  the  eightieth  anniversary  of  the  death 
of  John  Wesley.  Few  lives  have  more  thoroughly  illustrated 
the  exalting  power  of  faith  than  did  his.  Narrow  was  the  ho- 
rizon of  his  youthful  years,  his  birthplace  a  cabin  in  the  pine 
reaches  of  Eastern  Georgia,  his  opportunities  those  of  the  son 
of  the  average  American  pioneer  squatter ;  but  he  came  at  last, 
through  grace  and  self-devotion,  to  stand  on  "fortune's  crown- 
ing slope,"  the  pillar  and  center  of  a  cause  which  has  written 
itself  amongst  the  inextinguishable  records  of  time.  With  lit- 
tle early  training,  he  attained  to  real  power  and  greatness  as  a 
preacher  and  naturally  and  effectively  entered  into  the  highest 
office  of  the  Church.  His  life  story  is  too  well  known  to  require 
enlargement  here;  his  character  and  service  are  too  well  au- 
thenticated to  need  either  defense  or  explication.  He  both  de- 
fends and  explains  himself. 

Bishop  John  Early,  who  on  November  5,  1873,  followed  his 
colleague.  Bishop  Andrew,  through  the  gates,  is  also  to  be 


22 


History  of  Methodism. 


written  down  as  one  who  loved  his  fellow  men.  He  began  his 
ministerial  life  in  180G  as  a  preacher  to  the  negro  slaves  on  the 
plantation  of  President  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia. Born  January  1,  1780,  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age 
when  he  joined  the  Virginia  Conference.  A  distinguished 
record  of  service  as  pastor,  presiding  elder,  and  Publishing 
Agent  of  the  Church  is  credited  to  him  between  1807  and  1854, 
when  he  was  called  to  the  episcopal  office.  To  strength  of 
opinion  and  the  quality  of  fearlessness  he  added  high-minded  - 
ness  and  the  highest  elements  of  Christian  manhood  and  patri- 
otism. Because  of  his  strong  convictions,  he  was  sometimes 
thought  to  be  exacting  of  those  who  came  under  his  administra- 
tion; but  the  testimony  of  thousands  of  brethren  qualified 
these  offenses  into  idiosyncrasies  and  mistakes  of  judgment. 
"Thousands  were  brought  to  Christ  through  his  ministry." 
His  flaming  zeal,  unshaken  devotion,  and  peaceful  end  testify 
concerning  the  life  that  has  gone  to  its  final  record  in  "the 
books." 

The  General  Conference  which  met  in  Atlanta  in  May,  1878, 
had  before  it  a  question  of  law  and  privilege  which  became  the 
subject  of  much  controversy  throughout  the  Connection  and 
also  of  certain  acts  of  legislation.  The  right  of  Logan  D. 
Dameron,  a  lay  delegate  from  the  St.  Louis  Conference,  to  a 
seat  in  the  body  was  challenged  on  legal  grounds — namely, 
questions  affecting  the  tenure  of  his  Church  membership.  The 
issue  was  never  settled,  the  delegate  retaining  his  seat  de  facto 
to  the  end.  The  Conference,  dealing  with  another  case,  settled 
for  the  time  being  the  principle  that  a  delegate-elect  to  the 
General  Conference  does  not  forfeit  his  seat  though  he  should 
remove  to  another  Annual  Conference  than  the  one  which 
elected  him.  This  was  on  the  theory  that  the  Church  is  a 
Connection.  In  later  years,  however,  this  legislation  has  been 
reversed,  and  the  rule  is  that  a  delegate  must  be  in  living 
membership  with  the  Annual  Conference  whose  representative 
liis  credentials  show  him  to  be. 

Tt  was  officially  announced  that  the  Church  had  not  "en- 
joyed richer  evidences  of  divine  favor  nor  possessed  greater  ele- 
ments of  divine  power  and  prosperity"  than  during  this  ouad- 
rennium.   Startling  forms  of  unbelief  were,  however,  beginning 


World  Conditions — Death  of  Bishop  Marvin. 


23 


to  manifest  themselves  in  the  thought  life  of  the  times,  but 
set  against  them  was  the  growing  power  of  the  evangel.  A 
pronounced  financial  stringency  began  to  depress  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  the  day,  but  was  answered  by  a  spirit  of  devo 
tion  and  sacrifice  in  the  Church.  The  quieting  political  con- 
dition of  the  republic  was  a  matter  of  note.  The  gigantic- 
struggle  between  Russia  and  Turkey  was  impressing  the  re- 
ligious mind  of  the  whole  race,  while  the  beginning  of  the  dis- 
establishment of  papacy  in  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  was  in 
full  view.  The  homogeneity  of  the  Church  in  the  South  was 
never  more  certainly  attested,  and  the  continued  frequency 
and  power  of  revivals  were  accepted  as  pledges  of  complete 
rehabilitation  and  triumph. 

'The  death  of  Bishop  Enoch  M.  Marvin,  which  occurred  in 
the  midst  of  these  hopeful  manifestations  in  December,  1877, 
was  a  great  shock  to  the  Church.  At  the  meridian  of  his 
strength,  having  only  a  brief  while  before  accomplished  one 
of  the  then  most  noteworthy  of  missionary  journeys,  with  lit- 
tle warning  to  his  family  and  none  to  the  Church,  he  was 
called  from  the  high  duties  to  which  he  had  been  assigned 
scarcely  more  than  a  decade  before.  His  rank  as  a  preacher 
was  exceptional,  and  his  efficiency  in  the  episcopal  office  had 
been  thoroughly  tested.  At  the  time  of  his  election  to  this 
office,  in  1866,  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence, nor  was  he  even  present  at  its  sitting;  but  his  fitness  for 
the  work  was  well  known,  and  the  decision  of  the  Church  was 
given  with  confidence.  Endowed  with  exalted  natural  abili- 
ties, he  was  able  to  overcome  the  handicap  of  an  early  lack  of 
advantages  and  to  take  his  place  in  the  rank  of  the  most 
favored.  "A  true  soldier  of  the  cross,  a  faithful  servant  of 
the  Church,  he  retired  at  noon  from  the  battle  field  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  Captain." 

In  passing  a  eulogy  upon  the  memory  and  character  of  Bishop 
Marvin,  the  General  Conference  of  1878  said: 

A  special  emphasis  is  given  to  our  sorrow  by  the  fact  that  the 
Church  of  God  is  not  permitted  to  reap  the  full  benefit  of  his  wise  ob- 
servations in  his  extended  Eastern  tour.  Commissioned  to  go  to  the 
millions  who  sit  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death  in  heathen  lands, 
he  went  as  a  messenger  of  light  into  their  midst;  and  his  accurate  ob- 


History  of  Methodism. 


servation  and  comprehensive  appreciation  of  the  situation  placed  him  in 
possession  of  a  wealth  of  facts  that  would  have  been  of  incalculable 
benefit  in  the  Church's  great  missionary  work.  His  holy  zeal  for  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  kindled  into  an  intenser  flame  by  the  sight  of  mil- 
lions under  the  pall  of  pagan  darkness,  would  have  infused  itself  into 
the  Church,  and  her  arm  would  have  been  nerved  afresh  for  the  conquest 
of  the  world  to  the  Son  of  God.  But  the  Head  of  the  Church  dismissed 
him  from  a  field  in  which  it  was  fondly  hoped  he  would  achieve  such 
grand  results.  We  bow  to  the  mysterious  dispensation,  assured  that, 
though  we  know  not  now  what  He  doeth,  we  shall  know. 

The  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  1878  is  particularly 
notable  as  the  one  which  formally  adopted  the  Woman's  Mis- 
sionary Society,  devising  a  charter  for  the  government  of  the 
same.  This  society  has  wrought  wonderfully  in  the  Church. 
Its  history  is  written  in  nearly  all  the  modern  missionary 
movements  of  the  Connection. 

The  changes  made  in  the  connectional  force  of  the  Church 
were  in  the  election  of  Dr.  A.  W.  Wilson  to  be  Missionary  Secre- 
tary, Dr.  O.  P.  Fitzgerald  to  be  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advo- 
cate, and  Dr.  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham  to  be  Editor  of  the  Sunday 
School  Literature.   Dr.  J.  B.  McFerrin  became  Book  Agent. 

Four  years  after  this  date  it  was  reported  that  the  Woman's 
Missionary  Society  had  justified  the  recognition  given  it.  The 
bond  scheme  for  the  relief  of  the  Publishing  House  had  suc- 
ceeded. Plans  for  the  organization  of  a  Church  Extension  So- 
ciety were  taking  shape.  The  Sunday  school,  under  a  new  ar- 
rangement, was  enjoying  much  prosperity,  and  the  fact  was 
noted  that  the  negro  population  of  the  South  was  again  "be- 
coming accessible  to  the  influences  of  the  Church."  An  effort 
was  made  to  secure  the  election  of  a  "missionary  bishop,"  but 
the  suggestion  found  no  encouragement.  The  report  of  the 
committee  on  education  affirmed  the  partial  success  of  the  plan 
to  establish  district  high  schools.  It  also  expressed  the  belief 
that  the  Church  could  not  abandon  the  work  of  higher  educa- 
tion to  the  State  and  argued  that  the  effort  to  establish  a  sys- 
tem of  correlated  schools  and  colleges  must  be  continued  in 
the  Church.  Each  one  of  these  items  might  be  elaborated  into 
a  chapter,  but  as  here  briefly  exhibited  they  suggest  the  real 
concern  and  foresightedness  of  the  men  who  were  dealing  with 
the  problems  of  their  day. 


Translation  of  the  Archons. 


2f) 


Death,  the  great  change  maker  in  the  plans  and  histories  of 
men,  began  at  the  very  outset  of  this  eventful  era  to  deplete 
the  ranks  of  the  archons.  The  first  conspicuous  name  to  be 
written  in  the  roll  of  translation  was  that  of  the  Rev.  S.  D. 
Baldwin,  D.D.,  author  of  the  one-time  famous  book,  "Arma- 
geddon," and  one  of  the  most  magical  and  entrancing  preach- 
ers of  his  day.  Comely  in  person,  commanding  in  presence, 
and  possessed  of  a  clear  and  mellow  voice  of  full  compass, 
he  had  been  thoroughly  educated  in  youth  and  had  brought 
his  mind  to  exceptional  ripeness  through  study  and  catholic 
reading.  In  language  and  antiquities  he  excelled  to  a  degree 
beyond  all  his  Conference  associates.  As  a  Christian  he  was 
consistent,  uniform  in  life  and  testimony,  and  approved  of 
God  and  men.  The  evangelistic  note  in  his  preaching  was 
deep  and  genuine,  welling  clear  from  a  personal  experience 
that  whelmed  his  own  consciousness.  His  parents  were  Pres- 
byterians and  had  named  him  for  the  great  Dr.  Davies,  the 
colonial  educator  and  preacher.  Born  in  Ohio  November  24, 
1818,  he  received  his  education  at  Woodward  College,  Cincin- 
nati. Having  a  special  admiration  and  affection  for  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South,  after  his  conversion  and  choice  of  the  min- 
istry of  the  Methodist  Church  he  entered  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference. Five  years  later  he  was  given  a  transfer  to  Tennes- 
see and  there  wrought  in  abundant  labors,  both  as  a  faith- 
ful and  distinguished  preacher  and  as  a  successful  literary 
man,  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  the  city  of  Nashville 
October  8,  1886. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Dr.  Baldwin  died  occurred  the 
death  of  Rev.  Andrew  Jackson  Crawford,  of  the  Mobile  Con- 
ference, a  pioneer  of  Alabama  and,  indeed,  of  the  Southwest. 
A  native  of  Tennessee,  he  fought  in  the  battle  of  New  Or- 
leans, in  the  War  of  1812,  under  the  distinguished  general  for 
whom  he  was  named.  Going  to  Alabama  as  an  official  in  the 
Land  Department  of  the  general  government,  he  preached 
amongst  the  Indians,  whose  lands  he  had  been  sent  to  survey. 
Later  he  joined  the  Alabama  Conference  and  lived  to  an  old 
age,  "the  good  gray  head  that  all  men  loved." 

To  this  record  belong  many  other  names  which  had  come  to 


26 


History  of  Methodism, 


be  known  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Conferences  in  which  they 
were  enrolled.  Amongst  them  may  be  mentioned  the  following 
■ — viz. :  The  Rev.  Thomas  M.  Capers,  a  nephew  of  Bishop  William 
Capers,  a  man  possessed  of  the  spirit  of  his  ancestors  and  who 
had  seen  service  in  several  parts  of  the  Connection,  but  who 
died  a  member  of  the  Florida  Conference  October  15,  18GG; 
Prof.  H.  K.  Stringfield,  son  of  Rev.  Thomas  Stringfield,  dis- 
tinguished as  an  early  editor  of  the  Church,  who  died  June  2, 
1870 ;  Rev.  N.  G.  Berryman,  latterly  remembered  as  an  active 
member  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  who  died  in  1872; 
Rev.  Thomas  Owens,  an  eccentric  but  powerfully  evangelistic 
pioneer  itinerant  of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  whose  death 
occurred  July  1,  1808;  Rev.  X.  F.  Reid,  a  man  of  consecration 
and  culture  and  a  leader  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  who 
died  June  G,  1873;  Rev.  W.  J.  Parks,  a  pioneer  and  greatly 
honored  member  of  the  Xorth  Georgia  Conference,  who  died 
October  1G,  1S73 ;  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Linn,  one  of  the  best-known 
pastors  of  his  time,  who  served  many  important  pulpits  in  the 
Connection  and  died  as  a  member  of  the  Louisville  Conference 
December  7,  187G. 

To  the  long  list  of  those  who  entered  into  reward  in  the  years 
immediately  following  this  record  are  to  be  added  the  name  of 
Bishop  David  S.  Doggett,  who  died  October  20,  1880,  and  that 
of  Bishop  William  M.  Wightman,  who  followed  him  on  Febru- 
ary 15,  1882.  Bishop  Doggett  was  born  January  23,  1810,  in 
Lancaster  County,  Va.  lie  was  well  taught  in  his  youth  and 
for  a  while  before  entering  the  ministry  was  himself  a  teacher. 
While  chaplain  of  the  University  of  Virginia  he  took  turns  at 
class  work  in  that  institution.  His  itinerant  ministry  began 
in  the  Virginia  Conference  in  the  year  1820.  His  pastoral  serv- 
ice was  given  to  the  larger  Churches  of  his  Conference.  For 
four  years  he  was  professor  in  Randolph-Macon  College  and 
for  eight  years  served  as  editor  of  the  Southern  Methodist 
Quarterly  Review.  He  was  called  to  the  episcopacy  in  1866. 
As  a  preacher  Bishop  Dogcrett  surpassed  most  of  the  men  of  his 
day;  the  pulpit  was  his  throne  of  power.  The  episcopacy  was 
adorned  and  strengthened  by  his  years  of  service  therein,  nc 
fillfd  honorably  and  faithfully  every  position  to  which  he  was 


Death  of  Bishops  Doggett  and  Wight  man — Elections.  27 


called.  Amid  severe  sufferings  his  earthly  life  closed,  to  leave 
a  memory  of  blessedness  to  those  who  followed  him. 

Bishop  William  May  Wightman  was  born  in  Charleston,  S. 
C,  January  8,  1808.  His  conversion  occurred  under  a  sermon 
preached  by  Bishop  Andrew.  His  education  was  received  at 
the  Charleston  College,  from  which  institution  he  graduated 
in  1827.  The  next  year  he  became  a  member  of  the  South 
Carolina  Conference.  As  pastor,  professor  in  Randolph-Macon 
College,  and  editor  of  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate,  he 
filled  up  years  of  active  service  until  1854,  when  he  became 
President  of  Wofford  College.  In  1859  he  accepted  the  chan- 
cellorship of  the  Southern  University  and  in  18G6  was  elected 
to  the  office  of  bishop.  Like  his  colleague,  Bishop  Doggett,  he 
was  by  nature  and  preparation  a  preacher.  All  other  sta- 
tions only  served  as  a  means  of  making  his  pulpit  ministry 
more  effective.  As  a  bishop  he  was  loved  and  welcomed  by 
the  Conferences  in  every  part  of  the  Connection.  His  work 
was  rendered  with  willing  cheerfulness.  "His  witness  is  in 
heaven,  and  his  record  is  on  high." 

The  General  Conference  following  the  death  of  these  two 
General  Superintendents  elected  five  additional  bishops — name- 
ly, Alpheus  W.  Wilson,  Linus  Parker,  A.  G.  Haygood,  John 
C.  Granbery,  and  Robert  K.  Hargrove.  On  the  day  following 
these  elections  Bishop-elect  Haygood  addressed  a  note  to  the 
Conference  declining  ordination.  The  reason  given  for  this 
course  was  the  great  responsibility  upon  him  in  connection 
with  the  presidency  of  Emory  College  and  other  educational 
enterprises,  which  turned  upon  his  personality  as  a  pivot.  The 
only  changes  made  in  the  other  connectional  offices  at  this 
time  were  in  the  election  of  Dr.  Robert  A.  Young  to  succeed 
Bishop  Wilson  as  Missionary  Secretary,  and  of  Dr.  W.  P.  Har- 
rison to  succeed  as  Book  Editor  Dr.  T.  O.  Summers,  who  had 
died  during  the  session  of  the  General  Conference. 


CHAPTER  II. 


Deaths  of  Distinguished  Ministers — Mexican  Missionary — Indian  Apostle 
— A  Roster  of  Distinguished  Lay  Methodists — The  First  Ecumenical 
Conference — Dr.  Osborn — Influence  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference — 
1866-18S3  (Concluded). 

AS  already  noted,  in  the  period  between  1866  and  the  Cen- 
tenary Conference  many  of  the  fathers  and  early  leaders 
of  the  Methodism  of  the  South  passed  away.  Amongst  the 
most  distinguished  and  revered  of  these  was  the  venerable 
Lovick  Pierce,  in  the  truest  sense,  next  to  Bishop  Soule,  the 
patriarch  of  the  Church.  His  death  occurred  at  the  home  of 
his  son,  Bishop  George  F.  Pierce,  in  Sparta,  Ga.,  November 
9,  1S70.  His  life  practically  began  with  the  life  of  organic 
American  Methodism,  his  birthday  being  March  24,  1785,  just 
three  months  after  the  Christmas  Conference.  Having  been 
converted  in  1803,  he  entered  the  Church  and  in  1805,  near 
the  close  of  his  twentieth  year,  became  an  itinerant  preacher. 
There  was  no  great  variety  in  his  life  of  service  in  the  min- 
istry, which  extended  over  more  than  seventy-four  years.  As 
pastor,  presiding  elder,  college  agent,  and  trustee,  he  completed 
his  course.  Awhile  he  was  military  chaplain  during  the  War 
of  1S12,  and  later  he  studied  medicine,  giving  a  time  to  its 
practice,  but  at  last  returned  to  a  calling  which  was  to  him 
over  all.  He  was  an  active  participant  in  the  stirring  contests 
which  marked  the  General  Conference  of  1844;  was  fraternal 
messenger  to  the  Church,  North,  in  1848,  a  mission  rejected  of 
that  body;  again,  in  1884,  he  was  named  fraternal  delegate, 
but  through  feebleness  was  prevented  from  carrying  out  his 
commission.  Like  the  names  of  Punshon,  Simpson,  and  Ar- 
thur, the  name  of  Lovick  Pierce  belongs  to  all  Methodism. 

Two  names  of  these  immortal  dead  which  had  close  associa- 
tion in  life  are  those  of  William  A.  Smith  and  Leroy  M.  Lee, 
both  Virginians  and  both  dying  in  a  mature  and  fruitful  age, 
the  former  in  1K70,  the  latter  in  1882.  Of  each  of  these  some- 
thing has  already  been  said  and  somewhat  will  always  remain 
to  be  recorder!.  Dr.  Smith  was  born  in  Fredericksburg,  Va.. 
November  20.  1S02.  With  small  early  educational  furnishing. 
(28) 


Memoirs  of  Leaders. 


lie  became  an  intellectual  and  educational  leader.  After  most 
successful  work  in  the  pastorate,  he  entered  the  presidency  of 
Randolph-Macon  College,  which  institution  he  helped  to  lift 
from  the  slough  of  despond  and  make  the  power  which  it  has 
become.  Later  he  was  transferred  to  Missouri  and  undertook 
a  similar  task  at  Central  College,  in  that  State;  but  failing 
health  and  death  cut  short  his  great  plans.  Dr.  Smith  was  an 
exceptionally  prominent  figure  in  the  General  Conference  of 
1844.  He  will  always  be  known  as  the  author  of  the  "Epis- 
copal Veto,"  as  well  as  of  other  strong  legal  devices  in  the 
government  of  the  Southern  Church. 

Dr.  Lee  acknowledged  Dr.  Smith  as  his  spiritual  father,  he 
having  been  converted  under  the  ministry  of  the  former  in 
1827.  Leroy  M.  Lee  was  of  preeminent  Methodist  descent. 
His  grandparents  had  known  the  ministry  of  Devereux  Jar- 
ratt,  the  friend  and  fellow  worker  of  Bishop  Asbury ;  and  Dr. 
Lee  himself  was  a  nephew  of  Jesse  Lee,  famous  in  the  earlier 
annals  of  the  Church.  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  entered  the 
traveling  connection.  In  1836  he  was  appointed  to  be  the  first 
editor  of  the  Sentinel,  a  Methodist  journal  projected  in  Rich- 
mond and  which  in  time  came  to  be  the  Richmond  Christian 
Advocate.  His  mind  was  profoundly  legal  and  philosophical. 
As  a  member  of  many  of  the  earlier  councils  of  the  Church, 
particularly  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844  and  of  the 
Louisville  Convention  in  1845,  he  left  his  impress  upon  the 
organic  life  of  both  Connections.  As  an  author  he  will  be  best 
remembered  for  his  "Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  Jesse  Lee." 

The  Tennessee  Conference,  during  the  year  1874,  lost  two 
of  its  most  representative  men,  the  Rev.  A.  L.  P.  Green,  D.D., 
and  the  Rev.  Fountain  E.  Pitts,  D.D.  Born  about  a  year  apart 
in  the  neighboring  States  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  they 
lived  together  in  close  intercourse  in  the  same  Conference  and 
died  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  same  day,  lacking  but  a  few 
years  of  filling  out  the  allotted  term  of  threescore  and  ten. 
Dr.  Green  has  been  described  as  a  man  of  "both  telescopic  and 
microscopic  intellect."  A  preacher  of  great  power  and  in  his 
ministry  effective  to  an  extraordinary  extent,  he  yet  followed  no 
laws  of  the  orator  or  rhetorician.  He  was  natural,  convinced 
and  convincing.    Possessed  of  ample  personal  means,  he  was 


History  of  Methodism. 


yet  a  true  itinerant.  In  the  General  Conference  and  other  as- 
semblies of  the  Church  he  was  second  to  none  in  influence,  but 
himself  neither  sought  nor  cared  for  connectional  office.  In 
the  social  circle  he  was  a  prince ;  in  the  pastorate  he  was  that 
servant  of  all  whom  the  Master  loves  to  honor. 

Rev.  Fountain  E.  Pitts  was  born  in  Georgetown,  Ky.,  July 
4,  1808.  He  began  life  with  the  heritage  of  a  good  education, 
good  antecedents,  and  an  agreeable  personality.  He  entered 
the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1824,  but  in  the  next  year  became 
a  member  of  the  Tennessee  Conference.  His  good  start  in  life 
was  in  addition  to  strong  natural  endowments.  His  intellectual 
powers  were  of  a  high  order;  his  voice  was  full,  clear,  and 
musical,  his  enunciation  distinct,  and  his  manner  deliberate 
and  always  impressive.  To  any  subject  which  he  discussed 
he  brought  the  aptest  language.  He  knew  the  way  to  the 
hearts  and  heads  of  men.  "His  life  was  a  success;  he  won 
many  souls  for  Christ."  With  his  colleague,  Dr.  Green,  he  was 
often  in  the  great  assemblies  of  the  Church  and  was  trusted 
in  counsel  and  leadership.  He  passed  away  on  May  12,  1874, 
surrounded  by  friends,  and  especially  by  a  number  of  the  great 
men  with  whom  he  had  labored  in  life. 

The  "Old  Baltimore  Conference,"  the  keystone  of  the  Ameri- 
can Methodist  arch,  was  particularly  represented  in  two  names 
in  the  beadroll  of  this  period.  These  were  the  names  of  Thomas 
B.  Sargent  and  Norval  Wilson.  Rev.  Thomas  B.  Sargent  was 
the  son  of  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Sargent,  a  close  friend  of  Bishop 
Asbury.  He  was  born  in  Baltimore  in  March,  1805.  Receiving 
his  education  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  he  entered  the  ministry.  Possessed  of  a  hand- 
some figure,  a  musical  voice,  highly  cultivated  manners,  and 
invariably  wearing  an  infectious  smile,  to  a  wide  circle  of 
friends  he  became  a  very  glass  of  human  grace.  The  famous 
John  Summerfield  was  his  contemporary  and  close  personal 
friend.  They  were  much  alike  in  habits  of  thought  and  in 
wonderful  pulpit  gifts.  Bishop  Soule  chose  Sargent  to  be  his 
traveling  companion  when  in  1842  he  went  as  fraternal  dele- 
gate to  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference.  It  was  no  surprise 
that  he  was  selected  as  Secretary  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1844.    Being  a  member  of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  he  re- 


Drs.  Norval  Wilson  and  Alexander  Means. 


31 


niained  with  that  body  through  its  changes  until  186G,  when  he 
followed  the  "old  guard"  and  the  majority  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Church,  South.  He  died  October  13,  1879. 

Rev.  Norval  Wilson,  great  and  distinguished  in  his  own 
right,  is  well  known  to  modern  Methodists  as  the  father  of 
Bishop  Alpheus  W.  Wilson.  Born  December  24,  1802,  and 
converted  in  his  seventeenth  year,  he  entered  the  itinerancy 
in  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  the  year  1821.  His  early 
education  was  liberal,  and  throughout  life  he  wrought  and  ap- 
plied himself  as  a  student.  He  was  especially  deeply  grounded 
in  the  doctrines  of  Methodism  and  the  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament.  Dr.  Wilson  was  President  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference when  in  1806  the  decisive  step  was  taken  which  placed 
the  Conference  in  the  Southern  Connection.  He  was  fearless 
and  self-devoted  and  always  a  man  of  God.  At  all  times 
and  everywhere  his  words  betrayed  the  consciousness  and  con- 
viction of  the  life  within  him.  He  expired  at  his  home,  in  Vir- 
ginia, August  9,  1876. 

Three  men  who  were  particularly  distinguished  in  the  educa- 
tional work  of  the  Church  in  this  earlier  and  formative  period 
were  Alexander  Means,  LL.D.,  of  Georgia,  Braxton  Craven, 
D.D.,  of  North  Carolina,  and  James  A.  Duncan,  D.D.,  of  Vir- 
ginia. 

Alexander  Means  was  born  in  Statesville,  N.  C,  February 
6,  1801.  His  education  as  to  its  primary  stage  was  secured  in 
the  schools  of  his  native  place.  Removing  to  Georgia  in  his 
younger  manhood,  he  there  for  a  time  engaged  in  the  occupa- 
tion of  school-teaching.  When  about  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
he  took  up  the  study  of  medicine,  going  to  Transylvania  College 
for  a  course  of  lectures.  In  1834  the  Georgia  Conference  en- 
terprised  at  Covington,  in  that  State,  the  Manual  Laibor  School, 
of  which  Dr.  Means  was  made  Principal.  Four  years  there- 
after the  movement  to  organize  and  endow  Emory  College 
was  begun,  and  Dr.  Means  was  selected  as  Professor  of  Phys- 
ical Science.  To  fit  himself  for  this  task  he  spent  a  time  in 
taking  special  lectures  in  chemistry  in  Jefferson  Medical  Col- 
lege, Philadelphia.  In  1840  he  accepted  the  chair  of  chemistry 
in  the  medical  branch  of  the  State  University  at  Augusta. 
Ten  years  later  he  made  a  visit  through  Europe,  increasing  his 


32 


History  of  Methodism. 


knowledge  of  the  history  of  science  and  arts  and  widening  his 
fellowship  amongst  the  learned  men  in  classic  countries.  In 
the  course  of  his  career  he  was  honored  with  many  marks  of 
recognition  from  the  schools  and  circles  of  the  learned.  In 
18G8  the  Governor  of  Georgia  made  him  State  Chemist.  Many 
learned  societies  in  this  and  other  countries  chose  him  to  hon- 
orary membership.  But  above  all  these  honors  and  recogni- 
tions he  prized  his  calling  as  a  preacher.  It  was  given  him, 
as  perhaps  to  no  other  man,  to  show  the  unities  of  God's  plans 
in  grace  and  nature.  His  gospel  was  a  challenge  to  the  wisest 
and  greatest  and  a  comfort  to  the  humblest.  At  the  death  of 
Dr.  Wilbur  Fisk,  of  the  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown, 
Conn.,  Dr.  Means  was  selected  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon. 
In  1850  he  was  selected  to  render  the  same  service  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  death  of  President  Taylor.  This  service  occurred 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  "For  seventy-five  years  he  preached 
the  gospel  and  pointed  sinners  to  the  cross,  himself  enjoying 
consciously  that  religion  which  he  preached  to  others." 

James  A.  Duncan,  D.D.,  was  born  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  April 
14,  1830.  His  father  was  the  venerable  David  Duncan,  who 
was  prominent  through  two  generations  in  the  education  of 
the  youth  of  the  South.  While  his  son  James  was  a  child 
he  accepted  the  presidency  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  so  that 
the  son  grew  to  manhood  amid  the  associations  and  influences 
of  college  life.  In  1847  he  was  converted  in  a  revival  which 
reached  and  involved  members  of  all  the  college  classes.  The 
next  year  he  received  license  to  preach  and  in  1849  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  pastorate  of  the  Church  in  Alexandria.  His  thor- 
ough education,  his  brilliant  gifts,  and  his  complete  consecra- 
tion to  his  work  were  prophecies  of  success  which  began  at  once 
to  be  fulfilled.  A  great  revival  attended  his  earliest  labors. 
After  the  pastorate  in  Alexandria,  he  went  to  Leesburg,  Wash- 
ington, and  other  near-by  stations,  following  which  came  nine 
years  in  the  city  of  Richmond.  In  that  city  he  took  front  rank 
amongst  the  pulpit  orators  of  the  day.  All  denominations 
flocked  to  hear  him  and  cultivated  his  friendship.  But  these 
honors  and  preferences  he  received  with  dignity  and  modesty, 
always  behaving  himself  with  godly  simplicity.  During  the 
era  of  the  War  between  the  States,  when  Richmond  was  the 


Distinguished  Educators. 


33 


capital  of  the  Confederacy,  his  star  was  ascendant.  During 
this  time,  in  addition  to  his  pastoral  labors,  he  edited  the 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate  and  won  in  the  literary  field 
a  recognition  equal  to  that  which  he  had  won  in  the  pulpit. 
In  1858  he  was  chosen  to  be  President  of  Randolph-Macon 
College,  thus  coming  into  the  succession  of  his  honored  father 
and  other  distinguished  men  who  had  served  in  that  position. 
It  was  ordained  that  here  he  should  finish  his  work,  but  the 
ten  years  which  remained  to  him  were  filled  with  opportunities 
and  calls  to  do  and  serve  in  the  largest  interests  and  concerns 
of  the  Church.  Elected  to  membership  in  the  General  Confer- 
ences of  18G6,  1870,  and  1874,  his  name  is  found  in  connection 
with  many  of  the  important  acts  of  the  earlier  and  latter  of 
those  sessions.  In  1876  he  attended  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Church,  North,  as  one  of  the  three  fraternal  messengers 
from  the  Methodism  of  the  South.  His  address  on  that  occa- 
sion is  one  of  the  memorable  utterances  heard  during  the  period 
when  fraternity  and  cooperation  were  taking  shape.  If  he  had 
lived  until  the  General  Conference  of  1878,  he  no  doubt  would 
have  been  called  to  the  office  of  the  episcopacy.  No  man  of  his 
day  was  more  popular;  no  man  was  more  beloved.  But,  weak- 
ened and  exhausted  by  ceaseless  toils  and  travels  in  the  interest 
of  the  institution  over  which  he  presided,  he  was  seized  with  a 
fever  which,  though  he  outlived  its  paroxysms,  left  in  his  frame 
the  seeds  of  death ;  and  after  lingering  some  months,  he  passed 
away  on  the  24th  of  September,  1877. 

The  life  history  of  Braxton  Craven  is  one  of  those  miracles 
and  apocalypses  of  providence  upon  which  men  of  faith  love  to 
think.  He  was  born  amid  conditions  as  helpless  as  ever  sur- 
rounded the  beginnings  of  a  human  life.  In  puling  infancy  he 
was  given  into  the  hands  of  kind  and  tender  people  who  nour- 
ished him  to  childhood  and  youthhood,  and  helped  him  to  the 
beginnings  and  hope  of  manhood.  His  sponsor  or  protector, 
Mr.  Nathan  Cox,  was  a  sturdy  Quaker  and  put  him  in  boyhood 
in  the  Quaker  school  at  Guilford,  N.  C.  Later  he  entered 
Union  Institute,  the  predecessor  of  the  opulent  foundation 
now  known  as  Trinity  College.  There  he  remained  until  1842, 
which  rounded  out  his  twentieth  year,  he  having  been  born 
August  26,  1822.  The  Principal,  Mr.  York,  leaving  in  this 
3 


34 


History  of  Methodism. 


year,  Craven  became  his  successor.  In  1849  he  went  as  a  stu- 
dent to  Randolph-Macon  College.  After  this  experience,  he 
returned  to  his  post  at  the  institute,  where,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  year,  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Union 
Institute  becoming  Trinity  College,  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
work  of  realizing  a  large  ideal  in  its  endowment  and  organiza- 
tion. It  stands  to-day  as  the  best  monument  of  his  life.  He 
joined  the  North  Carolina  Conference  about  the  year  1840; 
and  while  education  was  the  chief  concern  of  his  years  of  labor, 
he  was  a  true  evangelist  and  a  faithful  minister  of  the  Word. 
The  life  of  Braxton  Craven  is  a  book  for  the  youth  of  the 
Church  to  study  and  to  be  instructed  from.  What  is  said  here 
is  scarcely  so  much  as  a  preface  to  all  that  is  written  within. 

Philip  P.  Neely,  born  in  Rutherford  County,  Tenn.,  Sep- 
tember 9,  1819,  and  Edmund  W.  Sehon,  born  in  Hardy  County, 
Va.,  April  14,  1808,  possessed  some  unusual  qualities  in  com- 
mon. Both  were  men  of  uncommon  natural  powers  and  large 
attainments,  and  both  were  the  incarnation  of  native  and 
acquired  eloquence,  the  acknowledged  masters  of  assemblies. 
Dr.  Neely  began  his  career  in  the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1837. 
After  serving  for  a  time  in  that  State,  he  was  transferred  to 
the  State  of  Alabama,  where  he  remained  in  pastoral  work 
until  the  time  of  his  death,  which  resulted  from  an  attack  of 
yellow  fever  in  the  city  of  Mobile  June  7,  1878.  Dr.  Sehon 
was  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  family  and  one  which  occupied  a 
high  social  position  in  the  proudest  section  of  Kentucky.  He 
was  by  his  father  destined  to  the  law;  but  after  his  conversion 
lie  answered  the  Spirit's  call  to  the  ministry,  entering  the  Ohio 
Conference  in  1828.  In  1843  he  was  selected  as  a  delegate  to 
the  General  Conference.  In  the  bitter  discussions  and  issues 
which  distracted  that  Conference  he  sympathized  with  the 
South,  and  after  the  Separation  transferred  to  Tennessee.  In 
that  State  and  in  Kentucky  he  finished  his  course  of  service 
and  devotion  to  his  calling.  From  1850  to  1868  he  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Church's  eonneetional  missionary  affairs.  In  1860 
he  received  a  large  vote  for  the  episcopacy,  being,  with  Dr.  J. 
B.  McFerrin,  next  to  Dr.  H.  N.  McTyeire  when  he  was  chosen 
for  that  office.  His  last  days  were  spent  in  his  home  Confer- 
ence, in  the  pastorate,  in  which  he  died  June  7,  1876. 


Three  Methodist  Commoners. 


35 


Jefferson  Hamilton,  of  the  Alabama  Conference,  Edward  H. 
Myers,  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  and  Robert  Alexan- 
der, of  the  Texas  Conference,  were  commoners  of  Methodism 
in  the  truest  and  highest  sense. 

Jefferson  Hamilton  was  a  native  of  Worcester  County,  Mass., 
where  he  was  born  August  23,  1805.  He  had  the  great  good 
fortune,  as  had  so  many  of  the  Methodist  preachers  who  began 
life  in  his  day,  to  be  a  student  under  the  great  Dr.  Fisk.  Here 
he  laid  the  foundation  not  only  of  true  and  masterful  learning? 
but  of  a  truly  noble  manhood.  In  May,  1831,  he  joined  the 
New  England  Conference;  but  after  a  few  years,  his  health 
becoming  poor,  he  transferred  to  the  South,  meaning  to  remain 
only  so  long  as  it  was  necessary  to  recuperate  his  strength, 
but  his  heart  laid  hold  upon  the  land  and  the  people  of  his 
pilgrimhood,  and  there  he  joyfully  remained.  His  first  appoint- 
ment in  the  South  was  in  New  Orleans,  but  he  was  soon  trans- 
ferred to  the  Alabama  Conference,  where  he  finished  the  re- 
mainder of  his  earthly  years.  "His  acknowledged  ability,  his 
theological  attainments,  his  eloquence  in  the  pulpit,  and  his 
abundant  labors"  placed  him  almost  at  once  at  the  head  of 
his  Conference.  This  primacy  he  never  lost,  but  maintained 
his  hold  upon  his  'brethren  to  the  end,  which  came  at  Opelika, 
in  the  State  of  his  adoption,  December  16,  1874. 

Edward  H.  Myers,  D.D.,  was  born  in  Orange  County,  N.  Y., 
on  the  9th  of  January,  1816.  His  father  emigrated  to  Florida 
during  his  childhood,  and  there  he  grew  to  the  years  of  ma- 
turity. At  Randolph-Macon  College,  in  Virginia,  he  received 
a  thorough  training.  Upon  leaving  college  he  entered  himself 
upon  the  work  of  teaching,  being  employed  in  the  labor  school 
at  Covington  and  later  as  tutor  in  Emory  College.  His  min- 
istry began  as  a  member  of  the  Georgia  Conference  in  1841,  and 
he  continued  in  the  pastorate  until  1845,  when  he  became  a 
professor  in  Wesleyan  Female  College.  In  1854  he  was  elected 
to  the  editorship  of  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate,  which 
post  he  filled  for  seventeen  years,  returning  in  1871  to  Wes- 
leyan College  as  its  President.  After  three  years  of  service 
in  this  post,  he  returned  to  the  regular  pastorate,  that  being 
the  work  which  he  preferred  to  everything  else.  His  biographer 
says  of  him  that  "he  was  a  master  workman  in  all  departments 


36 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  labor.  ...  He  was  a  Christian  teacher  and  sought  the 
religious  welfare  of  his  people."  Dr.  Myers  is  distinguished 
as  the  chief  spokesman  and  most  active  member  on  the  South- 
ern delegation  of  the  famous  Cape  May  Convention.  His  book, 
''The  Two  Methodisms,"  resulted  from  his  experience  in  the 
discharge  of  that  historic  task.  He  was  a  man  born  to  lead, 
and  that  through  the  sympathy  and  confidence  which  he  in- 
spired by  reason  of  his  fellowship  with  men,  his  love  of  truth, 
and  his  ability  to  live  and  walk  on  the  plane  of  everyday 
human  need. 

Robert  Alexander,  along  with  Homer  S.  Thrall,  Martin 
Reuter,  and  Littleton  Fowler,  made  his  name  synonymous 
with  the  early  history  of  Texas,  both  as  a  republic  and  as  an 
American  State.  He  was  born  in  Tennessee  August  7,  1811, 
and  joined  the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1830.  Later  he  served 
in  various  parts  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  but  in  1837  went 
as  one  of  the  first  missionaries  to  Texas.  Scarcely  had  he 
crossed  the  Sabine  River  when  he  began  to  preach  and  plant 
missions.  This  work  continued  until  he  had  belted  the  laud 
from  its  eastern  border  to  the  remotest  American  settlements 
of  the  frontier.  In  1840  the  republic  of  Texas  was  divided  by 
the  General  Conference  into  two  mission  fields,  of  which  Little- 
ton Fowler  and  Robert  Alexander  became  superintendents. 
The  Texas  Conference  was  organized  by  Bishop  Waugh  at 
Reutersville  on  Christmas  Day,  1840.  From  that  time  forward 
the  personality  of  Robert  Alexander  became  preeminent  in  the 
whole  land.  He  appointed  the  mission  stations,  worked  out 
the  educational  plans,  and  directed  the  destinies  of  the  grow- 
ing Church  both  as  by  divine  direction  and  with  the  cordial 
consent  of  his  fellow  laborers.  He  left  his  impress  upon  his 
own  Church,  and  every  communion  in  the  State  was  indebted 
to  him  for  much  of  its  life  and  growth.  Public  men  were  in- 
fluenced by  his  ministry,  while  his  heroic  virtues  and  unwaver- 
ing testimony  mingled  with  the  volume  of  refining  and  Chris- 
tianizing influences  which  constantly  trailed  after  the  acces- 
sions of  population  from  the  older  and  more  civilized  parts  of 
the  country.  Dr.  Alexander  was  a  member  of  the  Louisville 
Convention  of  1845  and  was  in  many  other  ways  prominently 
active  in  the  early  history  of  the  Connection. 


Ale  jo  Hernandez  and  Samuel  Chioote. 


Distinction  and  service  of  another  sort,  though  to  no  dif- 
ferent end  than  those  already  described,  were  expressed  in  the 
lives  and  confirmed  in  the  death  of  Alejo  Hernandez  and  Sam- 
uel Chicote,  the  one  an  Aztec,  the  other  a  Creek  Indian,  but 
both  devoted  to  the  gospel  and  faithful  exponents  of  Meth- 
odist experience  and  doctrines. 

Alejo  Hernandez  may  be  called  the  father  of  the  Church's 
mission  in  Mexico.  He  was  born  in  the  State  of  Aguascalien- 
tes ;  but  the  date  is  not  known,  though  it  may  be  fixed  at  about 
1844.  His  father  was  a  hidalgo,  a  man  of  wealth  and  social 
rank,  who  put  his  son  in  college  with  a  view  to  training  him 
for  a  profession.  But  in  college  the  son  imbibed  infidel  no- 
tions and,  leaving  his  classes,  joined  the  native  army  against 
Maximilian.  He  was  captured  by  the  French  and  finally 
drifted  to  the  Texas  border,  where,  through  reading  Protestant 
literature,  he  became  interested  in  personal  religion.  At  a 
Methodist  meeting  held  in  Brownsville,  Tex.,  he  was  awakened, 
though  he  understood  no  word  in  the  service.  Becoming  later 
a  Church  member,  he  sought  to  bring  his  own  people  into  the  < 
same  light.  At  first  he  was  employed  as  a  missionary  on  the 
border ;  but  when  Bishop  Keener  opened  the  mission  in  Mexico 
City,  Hernandez  was  appointed  to  work  in  that  station.  Soon 
after  this,  however,  on  September  27,  1875,  he  died,  leaving  a 
testimony  which  has  been  as  a  star  and  a  song  to  the  people 
of  his  nation. 

Samuel  Chicote,  a  chief  of  the  Creek  Nation  and  a  Meth- 
odist preacher,  was  born  on  the  Chattahoochee  Kiver,  in  the 
State  of  Alabama,  in  the  year  1819.  As  a  boy  he  was  a  little 
while  in  the  Methodist  mission  school  at  Fort  Mitchell,  near  the 
reservation  of  his  people.  In  1839,  with  his  parents  and  other 
groups  of  his  tribe,  he  went  across  the  Mississippi  River  to 
the  Creek  lands  in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Oklahoma.  For 
a  time  savagery  engulfed  him  and  his  people,  but  eventually 
they  were  rescued  by  the  missionaries.  Restored  to  his  early 
faith  and  becoming  himself  an  active  Christian,  he  took  up 
the  work  of  teacher  and  missionary  amongst  the  settlements 
of  his  tribe.  Here  he  suffered  great  persecution,  often  to  the 
point  of  personal  violence.  In  1852  he  joined  the  Indian  Mis- 
sion Conference;  and  while  filling  the  office  of  chief  of  the 


3S 


History  of  Methodism. 


Creek  Nation  he  continued  to  serve  in  his  ministerial  office, 
sometimes  as  pastor,  sometimes  as  presiding  elder.  He  was  a 
delegate  to  the  first  Ecumenical  Conference,  which  met  in  Lon- 
don in  1881.  Both  as  a  representative  of  his  race  and  as  a 
man  of  faith  and  experience  he  excited  the  interest  and  the 
sympathy  of  the  delegations.  When  the  Centenary  Conference 
was  appointed  to  meet  in  1881,  Chicote  was  again  selected  as 
a  delegate  to  represent  his  people;  but  the  life  journey  of  the 
apostle  of  the  wilderness  was  nearing  its  end,  and  before  the 
time  appointed  he  breathed  his  last,  September  4,  1884.  He 
was  not  only  a  pioneer  in  Indian  evangelization,  but  preem- 
inently a  pioneer  in  the  movement  for  Indian  education. 

The  Church  not  only  found  that  lay  representation  in  the 
General  Conference  did  not  disturb  the  old-time  order  and  dig- 
nity of  legislation  and  administration,  but  soon  realized  that 
it  brought  a  new  and  virile  force  into  the  processes  of  both. 
The  advice  and  help  of  laymen  added  wisdom  to  the  connection- 
al  counsels,  and  the  exercise  of  new  functions  by  the  laymen 
stimulated  their  own  activity  in  every  branch  of  the  Church. 
The  names  of  many  laymen  prominent  in  public  life — legis- 
lators, jurists,  officials  of  the  State  and  Federal  governments, 
educators,  journalists,  capitalists,  and  leaders  of  industry — 
now  began  to  be  familiar  to  the  records  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence. Amongst  these,  for  the  earlier  era,  may  be  mentioned 
Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle,  of  South  Carolina,  the  veteran  educator, 
churchman,  and  citizen;  Mr.  D'Arcy  Paul,  of  Virginia,  uni- 
versally loved  and  honored  for  his  exalted  character;  Hon.  A. 
H.  Colquitt,  of  Georgia,  Governor  and  United  States  Senator; 
Col.  L.  D.  Palmer,  long  connected  with  the  Church's  publish- 
ing interests ;  Hon.  W.  H.  Foster,  of  Louisiana ;  Judge  James 
E.  Watts,  of  Mississippi,  Christian  jurist;  Dr.  L.  C.  Garland, 
the  first  Chancellor  of  Vanderbilt  University  and  of  unsullied 
fame  and  honor;  Judge  John  F.  House,  of  Tennessee,  states- 
man and  author;  Hon.  R.  B.  Vance,  of  North  Carolina,  member 
of  Congress  and  a  saint  of  the  toga;  Hon.  Trusten  Polk,  of 
Missouri,  the  adviser  of  Israel;  Col.  W.  L.  Nugent  and  Judge 
A.  G.  Mayers,  both  of  Mississippi  and  eminent  for  learning  and 
loyalty  ;  Hon.  W.  H.  N.  Magruder,  of  Louisiana,  philanthropist : 
Dr.  Charles  K.  Marshall,  the  eloquent  local  preacher;  Ex-Gov- 


Great  Lay  Leaders. 


39 


ernor  H.  W.  Foote,  of  Mississippi ;  Judge  J.  C.  0.  Winch  and 
Col.  Thomas  R.  Bonner,  both  of  Texas  and  untiring  in  service 
and  sacrifice;  Prof.  R.  M.  Mcintosh,  of  Georgia,  the  "Asaph" 
of  Methodism ;  Gov.  G.  D.  Shands,  of  Mississippi,  publicist  and 
educator ;  Judge  Lucius  Q.  C.  Lamar,  Associate  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent men  of  modern  times;  Mr.  Samuel  Cupples  and  Mr.  R. 
M.  Scruggs,  both  of  Missouri,  liberal  in  benefactions;  Gov- 
ernors Comer  and  Seay,  of  Alabama ;  Hon.  W.  W.  Garland,  of 
Arkansas;  Hon.  J.  Wofford  Tucker,  of  Florida;  Hon.  W.  H. 
Goodale,  of  Louisiana,  a  rare  and  gentle  spirit ;  Gov.  J.  R.  Hind- 
man,  of  Kentucky ;  Mr.  Asa  Holt,  of  Texas ;  Maj.  C.  C.  Clay,  of 
California;  Judge  Walter  B.  Hill,  of  Georgia,  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court ;  Col.  E.  W.  Cole,  of  Tennessee ;  Governor  Sam- 
ford,  of  Alabama ;  Maj.  R.  W.  Millsaps,  founder  and  patron  of 
Millsaps  College;  Judge  J.  D.  Thomas,  of  Texas;  and  Dr.  W. 
W.  Smith,  the  distinguished  organizer  and  Chancellor  of  the 
Randolph-Macon  System  of  Education  in  Virginia.  Many  of 
these  great  lay  leaders  of  the  Church  have  passed  away,  but 
not  a  few  remain,  and  some  are  still  active  in  Conference  and 
connectional  affairs.  A  new  army  of  their  peers  has  come  on 
in  recent  years,  whose  names  and  services  will  find  mention 
later. 

The  first  Ecumenical  Conference,  to  which  reference  has  al- 
ready been  made,  held  in  London  September  7,  1881,  in  its 
refluent  influence  fittingly  emphasized  the  growing  spirit  of 
fraternity  in  America  and  stood  as  a  mighty  pillared  porch, 
inviting  into  the  life  and  unity  of  the  new  Wesleyan  house. 
Its  potencies  became  more  real  than  even  its  most  ardent  pro- 
moters had  dreamed.  Its  proceedings  were  briefly  adverted 
to  by  Bishop  McTyeire  in  the  last  paragraph  of  his  History. 
A  more  detailed  record,  however,  is  due  to  be  entered  here. 
The  sessions  of  this  Conference  were  held  in  City  Road  Chap- 
el. There  could  be  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  proprie- 
ty of  selecting  that  place  for  that  gathering.  The  following 
Churches  of  Methodism  were  represented — namely:  Wesleyan 
Methodist,  Irish  Methodist,  Methodist  New  Connection,  Primi- 
tive Methodist,  Bible  Christian,  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches,   Wesleyan   Reform   Union,   United   Free  Gospel 


40 


History  of  Methodism. 


Churches,  French  Methodist,  and  Australian  Methodist  Church. 
These  were  all  in  Great  Britain,  excepting  the  last  two,  and  all 
were  known  as  in  the  Eastern  Section.  In  the  Western  Set 
tion,  including  Canada,  were  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  the  Methodist  Prot- 
estant Church,  the  Evangelical  Association,  the  United  Breth- 
ren,* the  American  Weslevan  Church,  the  Free  Methodist 
Church,  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  in  the  United  States, 
the  Independent  Methodist,  Congregational  Methodist,  Afri- 
can Methodist  Episcopal,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion, 
Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America,  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada, 
Primitive  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  Canadian  Bible  Chris- 
tians, and  British  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada — 
being  in  all  eighteen  different  bodies  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada  and  ten  from  the  Eastern  Section,  making  twenty- 
eight  different  Methodist  bodies.  Thus  were  gathered  together 
six  million  Methodists,  representing  a  population  of  twenty- 
five  million  in  many  countries  of  the  world.  The  advance  from 
1739  to  1881  was  too  apparent  to  be  missed. 

The  Rev.  George  Osborn,  D.D.,  President  of  the  British  Wes- 
levan Conference,  conducted  the  opening  exercises,  after  which 
Bishop  Simpson  delivered  the  Conference  sermon.  As  has  been 
usual  at  all  such  gatherings,  the  sermon  was  followed  by  the 
administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  themes  discussed 
covered  a  wide  range  of  thought  and  Weslevan  nomenclature 

One  of  the  great  meetings  of  the  Conference  was  held  in 
Exeter  Hall  on  September  15,  1881.  This  was  called  the  fra- 
ternal session,  at  which  the  delegates  from  other  Christian 
bodies  were  received.  Representatives  came  from  the  Pan- 
Presbyterian  Council,  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England, 
the  United  Brethren  Church,  the  Baptist  Churches  of  Great 
Britain,  Congregational  Churches  of  England,  and  the  British 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  among  the  Jews. 
Tt  was  a  time  of  world-wide  fellowship,  perhaps  the  point  of 
largest  contact  ever  made  by  the  different  Protestant  denomi- 


*Ttie  United  Brethren  Church  did  not  send  representatives,  holding 
itself  to  he  a  non-Methodist  hody. 


The  First  Ecumenical  Conference. 


41 


nations  of  the  earth.  The  occasion  attracted  much  attention 
from  the  press  of  London  and  the  whole  English-speaking 
world.  The  question  of  the  union  of  Wesleyanisni  and  Angli- 
canism was  then  receiving  much  attention  in  some  quarters. 
Upon  this  possibility  the  London  Times  remarked  that  if 
Methodism  should  coalesce  with  the  English  Establishment 
and  its  Episcopal  affluents,  it  would  furnish  the  elements  of 
another  vast  internal  convulsion  that  might  rival  the  Wesleyan 
revolt  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Daily  Chronicle  said : 
"This  wondrous  system — Methodism — is  of  comparatively  re- 
cent growth,  and  there  is  no  sign  of  lessened  vitality."  Amid 
such  comments  and  awakened  surprises  the  great  gathering 
came  to  its  close. 

The  Methodist  Church  claims  to  have  an  ecumenical  creed, 
its  Articles  of  Religion  being  a  rescension  of  the  Anglican 
Articles,  whose  descent  from  the  Nicene  Statement  by  the  way 
of  the  Augsburg  Confession  has  been  well  established.  It  was, 
therefore,  fitting  choice  of  title  when  Methodists  elected  to 
call  their  world  gathering  an  Ecumenical  Conference,  thus 
uniting  a  term  of  ancient  churchly  nomenclature  with  the 
peculiar  Wesleyan  designation  for  an  assembly.  The  thought 
was  retrospective,  affirmative,  and  prophetic.  The  men  who 
conceived,  planned,  and  realized  the  first  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence did  not  fully  comprehend  the  significance  of  their  own 
work ;  but  it  was  an  inspiration,  the  fullness  of  whose  fruitage 
is  to  be  gathered  in  times  not  wholly  out  of  sight. 


CHAPTER  III. 


The  Centenary  Fund — Session  of  the  Centenary  Conference — Conven- 
tional Forces — Literary  Activity — Facing  the  New  Age — A  Ring  of 
Triumph — Colored  Education — Comity  and  Federation — General  Con- 
ference Acts — Change  of  Name — Deceased  Bishops — Connectional 
Elections— The  Hymn  Book— The  Quarterly  .Review— 1884-1889. 

THE  Centenary  Conference,  participated  in  by  the  whole 
body  of  American  Methodists  without  distinction  of  name 
or  polity,  was  preceded  by  a  year  of  special  activities,  meant 
to  deepen  the  general  religious  consciousness,  emphasize  Wes- 
leyan  doctrines,  and  put  forward  in  a  material  and  financial 
way  the  connectional  enterprises  of  the  several  and  separate 
Methodist  bodies.  At  the  session  of  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  held  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  in  May,  1882,  it  had  been  determined  to  attempt  the 
raising  of  a  centenary  fund  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  to  be 
equally  applied  to  the  causes  of  education,  Church  extension, 
and  missions.  The  entire  sum  raised  under  this  call  was  $1,- 
375,000,  but  was  mostly  devoted  to  the  building  and  endow- 
ment of  schools  and  colleges  and  to  local  church  equipment, 
which  causes  received  a  marked  impulse  from  the  widespread 
celebrations  and  their  resultants  of  enthusiasm  and  quickened 
generosity.  The  Northern  parts  of  the  republic  being  then 
much  more  prosperous  than  the  States  of  the  South,  the  ma- 
terial returns  had  from  the  celebrations  in  the  territory  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  were  even  more  marked;  nor 
were  the  general  spiritual  benefits  therein  obtained  less  con- 
siderable. Perhaps  at  no  time  since  the  days  which  made  the 
height  of  the  Asburian  era  had  American  Methodism  felt  so 
certain  and  so  abiding  an  uplift  as  that  which  came  of  these 
celebrations.  The  wastes  of  war  had  already  been  fairly  re- 
paired, sectional  animosities  were  subsiding  an  era  of  im- 
proved  feeling  was  coming  on  in  national  politics,  great  social 
reforms  were  under  way,  and  Church  fraternity  had  been 
placed  upon  a  certain  and  workable  basis.  The  new  century 
thus  began  in  the  calendar  of  human  emotions  a  decade  and  a 
half  before  it  was  noted  by  the  keepers  of  dates. 
(42) 


The  Centenary  Conference. 


43 


The  Centenary  Conference  met  at  the  time  and  place  ap- 
pointed. It  consisted  of  four  hundred  and  forty-four  mem- 
bers, ten  of  whom  represented  the  non-Episcopal  Methodist 
Churches  of  the  continent.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  was  present  in  a  body  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
delegates.  The  majority  inhered  in  the  delegations  from  the 
North.  This  Conference  proved  in  every  way  worthy  of  the 
potent  memories  which  its  call  had  awakened  and  of  the  large 
influences  which  it  was  meant  to  set  in  motion. 

To  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  belongs  the  honor  of  first  proposing  the  cen- 
tenary celebration  of  1884.  In  the  General  Conference  which 
met  in  Atlanta  in  May,  1878,  the  conception  had  its  first  for- 
mal expression.  At  the  Ecumenical  Conference  held  in  Lon- 
don in  1881  the  American  delegates,  to  the  number  of  eighty- 
one,  signed  a  formal  call  for  the  gathering  of  this  Conference. 
At  the  General  Conference  of  the  Southern  Church  held  in 
May,  1882,  a  committee  of  correspondence  was  appointed  and 
representation  in  the  Conference  provided  for.  Kesponding 
to  this  action,  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
appointed  a  committee  of  equal  number  to  cooperate  with  the 
committee  from  the  South.  After  full  consultation,  all  details 
were  agreed  upon.  Bishop  Andrews,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  was  made  chairman  of  the  General  Executive 
Committee,  and  to  him  is  due  great  credit  for  the  success  of 
the  undertaking. 

The  first  function  of  the  Conference  was  an  informal  gather- 
ing on  December  8  in  the  First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
of  Baltimore,  the  lineal  successor  of  Lovely  Lane  Chapel,  in 
which  the  Christmas  Conference  of  1784  assembled.  The  ad- 
dress of  Bishop  Andrews  welcoming  the  delegations  was  re- 
sponded to  by  Dr.  J.  B.  McPerrin  and  others.  The  first  ses- 
sion of  the  Conference  proper  opened  in  Mount  Vernon  Church, 
Baltimore,  the  religious  services  being  conducted  by  Bishop 
Granbery.  The  opening  sermon  was  preached  by  Bishop  R.  S. 
Foster  and  is  traditionally  described  as  "a  masterly  discourse, 
which  occupied  over  two  hours  in  delivery."  It  produced  a 
profound  and  enduring  impression.  The  themes  discussed  in 
the  Conference  were  varied  and  of  far-reaching  interest.  The 


History  of  Methodism. 


spirit  of  fraternity  developed  rapidly,  and  all  the  proceedings 
were  conducive  thereto. 

The  great  Conference  closed  with  an  old-fashioned  love  feast. 
Testimonies  were  given  by  men  of  ripe  experience  in  the  two 
greater  Methodist  Churches  and  also  by  an  African  and  an 
Indian.  The  historic  gathering  ended  in  a  glow  of  spirit  which 
sent  its  influence  down  the  years.  But  though  the  leaders 
felt  the  inspiration  of  the  new  relationship,  they  were  not 
without  serious  concern  that  these  things,  deeply  and  soulfully 
felt,  should  be  realized  in  the  actualities  of  Methodist  history. 
Dr.  Frederick  N.  Merrick,  of  Ohio,  a  patriarch  of  Methodism, 
uttered  this  warning:  "Methodism  is  still  on  probation,  and 
peccability  is  a  condition  of  probation.  Other  Churches  have 
fallen  away ;  Methodism  may.  Our  prosperity  as  a  Church 
organization  brings  with  it  many  subtle  and  powerful  tempta- 
tions. We  need  to  watch  and  pray  that  we  be  not  led  into 
temptation."  With  these  solemn  words  the  Conference  came 
to  an  end. 

A  noteworthy  feature  of  the  Christian  activity  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the  number  and  ramifica 
tions  of  its  conventional  forces.  Bodies  of  men  and  women, 
comprising  millions  in  the  aggregate,  following  the  close  of 
the  War  between  the  States,  assembled  under  all  manner  of 
auspices  and  looking  to  the  furtherance  of  all  manner  of  ends. 
It  was  preeminently  the  age  of  conventions.  The  present  cen- 
tury received  the  popular  assembly  as  a  comparatively  spent 
force,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  use  made  of  it  in  the 
antecedent  era  was  monumental  and  effective.  Especially  was 
this  true  of  the  more  popular,  but  still  representative,  gather- 
ings of  the  Churches.  Many  of  these  became  educational  Pente- 
costs,  and  not  only  signaled  advance,  hut  supplied  inspiration 
for  the  zeal  of  vast  multitudes  who  had  not  otherwise  partici- 
pated in  the  wider  consciousness.  The  Centenary  Conference 
was  not  only  commemorative  of  consummations  past  and  set- 
tled .  but  it  was  typical  of  the  age.  It  was  the  first  full  pulse 
beat  of  American  Methodism  after  the  lamentable,  but  his- 
torically necessary,  events  of  1844.  Its  fraternal  intercourse 
and  the  understandings  reached  by  it  became  the  fitting  back- 
ground of  a  new  scene  in  the  religious  activities  of  the  Western 


Census  of  Methodism — Tenth  General  Conference.  45 


world.  "Slowly  gathered  upon  many  fields,  the  weight  of  its 
testimony  was  well-nigh  that  of  a  revelation."* 

This  closing  celebration  of  the  centenary  year  furnished  an 
opportunity  for  taking  a  general  census-survey  of  the  field  of 
Methodism.  The  figures  presented  at  that  time  showed  in  the 
several  Connections  in  America,  Great  Britain,  and  the  Antip- 
odes, with  their  several  missionary  dependencies,  the  following 
aggregates — viz. :  Traveling  preachers,  34,989 ;  local  preachers, 
77,053 ;  lay  communicants,  5,319,493.  The  next  year  the  mem- 
bership of  the  Southern  Church  was  reported  to  be  990,994, 
being  an  increase  of  448,505  since  18G0,  notwithstanding  the 
loss  in  the  white  membership  from  1860  to  1865  was  reported 
as  being  113,265.f  .  The  number  of  colored  members  in  the 
Church  in  1866  was  reported  at  78,742.  A  very  large  majority 
of  these  were  in  that  year  gathered  into  a  separate  jurisdiction 
created  by  act  of  the  Southern  General  Conference  and  known 
as  the  "Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America." 

The  special  activity  of  the  centennial  year  served  to  quicken 
the  literary  impulse  of  American  Methodists.  Keminiscential 
and  biographical  writings  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Many 
valuable  additions  were  thus  made  to  the  bibliographies  of 
the  Churches,  North  and  South.  The  reading  tastes  of  the 
people  were  sharpened,  and  the  incentives  to  authorship  were 
multiplied.  The  publishing  interests  of  the  several  Connec- 
tions were  correspondingly  enhanced  and  set  in  the  way  of  a 
new  going.  The  present  answered  to  the  past  in  making  in- 
creased demands  upon  the  future. 

The  tenth  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South  (being  the  twenty-fifth  General  Conference 
since  the  organization  of  the  Church,  in  1784),  met  in  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  May  5,  1886.  As  a  body  it  consciously  faced  a  new 
age  and  the  openings  of  new  destinies  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  Episcopal  Address,  written  and  read  by  Bishop  John  C. 
Keener,  struck  a  high  note.  This  must  needs  have  been  so, 
considering  the  personality  which  brought  it  forth.  Of  mas- 
sive intellect  and  exceptionally  evangelistic  in  temper  and  ex- 


*Episcopal  Address,  1886. 

tMcTyeire's  "History  of  Methodism,"  Chapter  XLVI.,  page  664. 


4G 


History  of  Methodism. 


perience,  he  was  masterful  in  Methodism  throughout  the  years 
of  his  ministry.  Speaking  for  his  colleagues  and  for  the  Con- 
nection in  general,  in  the  document  read  at  this  propitious 
hour  he  emphasized  the  doctrines  of  Methodism  and  the  tradi- 
tional Wesleyan  testimony  of  soundness  in  faith  and  experi- 
ence. The  innovating  tides  of  the  new  and  liberal  theologies 
had  not  then  touched  so  much  as  the  peripheries  of  the  South. 
The  whole  land  lay  under  the  cloudless  heavens  of  the  old 
confessions.  The  intellectual  manner  of  the  people  was  clas- 
sic, and  the  religious  thought  of  the  day  was  wholly  ortho- 
dox. The  conditions  were  singularly  favorable  to  the  program 
of  religion  in  general  and  that  of  Methodism  in  particular. 
Revivals  in  the  Churches  were  frequent  and  fruitful,  and  the 
General  Conference  was  called  upon  to  devise  larger  plans  and 
create  new  departments  of  administration  for  circuit,  station, 
district,  Annual  Conference,  and  the  general  jurisdiction. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Church  since  the 
Separation  there  was  a  ring  of  triumph  in  the  missionary  re- 
ports. The  opening  of  a  mission  in  Japan  was  noted.  The 
missions  in  China  and  Brazil  wrere  erected  into  Annual  Con- 
ferences. The  contributions  to  foreign  missions  for  the  quad- 
rennium  had  exceeded  those  of  any  previous  four  years  by  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  work  of  the  newly  organized 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Board  was  highly  praised.  The 
Board  of  Church  Extension  had  already  "turned  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Church  in  the  direction  of  church-building"  and 
had  potently  influenced  the  centenary  offerings.  The  Sunday 
School  Department's  x>rosperity,  as  also  that  of  the  Publishing 
House,  was  gratefully  mentioned. 

Significantly  enough,  the  first  calendar  item  to  which  the 
bishops  directed  the  attention  of  the  General  Conference  in 
their  new  century  address  was  that  of  the  educational  work 
to  be  undertaken  for  the  people  of  color.  Announcement  was 
made  of  the  establishment  during  the  previous  quadrennium 
of  a  school,  known  as  Paine  College,  at  Augusta,  Ga.,  to  which 
the  Rev.  Moses  U.  Payne,  of  Missouri,  had  given  the  first  f25,- 
000  of  endowment.  Through  changing  experiences  and  condi- 
tions of  stress  this  school  has  lived  and  grown  and  has  been 
one  of  the  choice  agencies  in  the  evangelization  and  education 


Legislation — "Manual  of  Discipline?' — Federation.  47 


of  the  colored  race.  The  effect  of  its  history  and  work  upon 
the  Church  which  founded  it  and  which  has  contributed  its 
main  support  has  been  salutary  and  providential.  Its  future 
should  be  one  of  the  large  concerns  of  Southern  Methodism. 

A  matter  of  early  legislation  at  this  time  was  to  levy  an 
assessment  for  the  self-support  of  future  General  Conferences. 
This  session  ended  the  plan  of  free  entertainment.  The  in- 
creased business  of  a  Methodist  general  assembly  robs  it  of 
time  for  social  leisure.  The  crux  is  to  bring  its  affairs  within 
a  reasonable  allotment  of  days. 

A  question  also  arose  concerning  the  authority  of  "A  Manual 
of  the  Discipline,"  by  Bishop  McTyeire.  The  Bishop  explained 
the  origin  of  the  work — namely,  that  it  grew  out  of  a  request 
made  of  him  by  his  colleagues  to  prepare  a  commentary  upon 
the  laws  and  canons  of  the  Church.  It  had  been  passed  upon 
by  them  and  stood  as  a  consensus  of  their  best  judgment.  The 
importance  and  authority  of  this  work  hold  with  the  passing 
years. 

On  May  10  a  most  significant  resolution  on  "Comity  and 
Federation,"  signed  by  M.  B.  Chapman  and  others,  was  offered. 
It  asked  for  a  commission,  to  meet  a  similar  commission  from 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, to  devise  plans  for  federation  both  at  home  and  in  the  for- 
eign field,  and  to  "compile  a  common  hymnal  for  Methodism." 
This  is  the  first  use  of  the  word  "federation"  in  any  General 
Conference  and  certainly  may  be  considered  the  first  impulse 
toward  a  movement  now  potent  with  prophecy.  The  idea  did 
not  prevail  at  this  session,  but  the  momentum  given  it  caused 
it  to  take  shape  in  1894,  eight  years  later. 

An  effort  was  made  to  put  the  domestic  mission  work  under 
the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension.  It  did  not 
succeed,  but  is  of  interest  in  view  of  similar  propositions  which 
have  since  been  made. 

Certain  institutes  and  original  devices  for  securing  popular 
administration  were  now  taking  shape.  Chiefest  amongst 
these  was  what  is  to-day  known  as  the  District  Conference. 
This  Conference,  as  a  possible  integrant  of  Methodist  conven- 
tion, was  freely  discussed  in  the  General  Conference  of  I860 
and  was  recommended  as  an  experiment.    But  it  was  not 


48 


History  of  Methodism. 


canonically  established  until  1870,  when  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  that  year  placed  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  a  chapter 
under  the  title  "Of  the  District  Conference."  From  the  van- 
tage of  1886  the  bishops  were  able  to  say  that  they  had  found 
the  District  Conference  to  be  "an  increasingly  efficient  part  of 
our  system."  It  had  been  particularly  useful  in  organizing 
and  maintaining  district  schools  and  seminaries  and  had  thus 
in  an  unexpected  way  helped  forward  the  cause  of  religious 
education. 

"Children's  Day"  in  the  Sunday  school  was  ordered  to  be 
observed,  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  fruitful  departure.  Some 
important  changes  were  also  made  in  the  ritual  for  the  bap- 
tism of  both  infants  and  adults.  Dr.  McFerrin  and  others 
protested  against  the  change  in  the  baptismal  office  as  being 
a  stroke  "at  the  doctrine  of  original  or  birth  sin."  Happily, 
the  leaders  of  Methodism,  almost  without  exception,  have  been 
tenacious  of  the  old  doctrines,  even  to  the  point  of  defending 
traditional  interpretations. 

A  system  of  colportage  was  provided  for,  practically  the 
system  which  exists  to-day.  The  "war  claim"  against  the 
government  received  less  attention  at  this  time  than  it  had 
before  and  much  less  than  it  was  destined  to  receive  in  future 
sessions.  It  became  the  center  of  an  era  of  protracted  discus- 
sion and  disturbance,  the  details  of  which  will  be  treated  in 
their  proper  connection. 

The  German  work  in  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  was  merged 
into  the  English-speaking  Conferences,  showing  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  German  language  and  the  peculiarly  German  tra- 
ditions of  the  membership  of  the  former  German  organizations. 
At  this  session  the  "temporary  court  of  appeal  in  an  adjoin- 
ing Annual  Conference"  was  constituted  for  the  relief  of 
preachers  under  charges  who  wished  to  have  an  early  hearing 
of  their  cases  in  review.  It  was  not  a  satisfactory  law  and 
was  soon  repealed.  The  existing  disciplinary  rule  on  divorce 
was  also  enacted  at  this  time.  It  fully  expressed  the  con- 
science of  Methodism  on  this  most  important  and  enhancing 
question  of  the  sanctity  of  the  institution  of  marriage. 

At  this  General  Conference  the  bishops  reported  the  official 
vote  of  the  Annual  Conferences  on  the  proposition  to  change 


Change  of  Name — Deaths  of  Bishops. 


49 


the  name  of  the  Church  from  that  of  "Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,"  to  that  of  "Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
America,"  which,  reference  had  been  ordered  by  action  of  the 
General  Conference  of  1882.  This  vote  was:  Yeas,  91;  nays, 
3,415.  The  demand  for  a  change  of  the  Church's  corporate 
name  has  been  a  persistent  one  since  18G6.  At  the  General 
Conference  in  that  year  a  proposition  to  change  the  name  to 
"Episcopal  Methodist  Church"  was  sent  down  to  the  Annual 
Conferences,  but  was  defeated  ny  a  decisive  vote.  Again,  in 
1910,  in  response  to  many  memorials  asking  for  a  change,  the 
General  Conference  resubmitted  the  proposition  of  1882 — 
namely,  to  change  the  title  to  the  "Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  America."  The  vote  of  the  Annual  Conferences,  given  in 
1913,  while  showing  a  marked  advance  of  the  sentiment  for 
change,  was  still  decidedly  against  the  proposition.  It  now 
seems  probable  that  no  change  of  the  present  name  and  title 
of  the  Church  can  occur  except  through  a  continental  read- 
justment of  Methodist  relations.  It  is,  therefore,  a  question 
wrapped  up  with  the  Church's  ultimate  problems. 

At  the  session  of  1886  appropriate  official  notice  was  taken 
of  the  fact  that  four  of  the  chief  pastors  of  the  Church  had 
been  called  during  the  quadrennium  from  their  labors  into  re- 
ward. These  were :  Bishop  Hubbard  Hinde  Kavanaugh,  Bishop 
George  Foster  Pierce,  Bishop  Robert  Paine,  and  Bishop  Linus 
Parker.  Two  of  these  had  attained  to  patriarchal  years, 
Bishop  Paine  being  eighty-four  and  Bishop  Kavanaugh  eighty- 
two  years  of  age.  Bishop  Pierce  had  reached  the  very  ripe 
age  of  seven ty -three ;  but  Bishop  Parker  had  been  summoned 
at  the  time  of  his  strength,  being  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  his 
life  and  the  third  of  his  episcopacy. 

Bishops  Kavanaugh  and  Pierce  were  elected  to  the  episco- 
pacy in  1854.  Within  a  few  months  of  each  other  they  passed 
away,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  dying  on  March  19,  1884,  and  Bishop 
Pierce  on  September  3  of  the  same  year.  A  tremendous  and 
persuasive  eloquence  marked  the  preaching  of  each  of  these; 
but  their  personalities  were  cast  in  different  molds,  and  they 
were  dissimilar  in  mood  and  tendencies  of  mind.  The  former, 
with  his  complement  of  Celtic  blood  and  characteristics,  edu- 
cated and  trained  largely  through  his  own  mastery,  in  answer- 
4 


50 


History  of  Metlwdism. 


ing  to  the  needs  and  providences  of  the  time  that  made  him 
showed  that  he  belonged  to  that  time  and  to  its  great  and  ex- 
ceptional opportunities.  Action  in  stress  and  the  challenge 
of  a  voice  commanding  in  physical  compass  and  matched  with 
the  urgency  of  a  prophecy  of  fire  made  his  ministry  notable. 
He  served  his  generation  in  the  spirit  of  the  ancieuts.  In  the 
years  of  war,  separated  from  his  colleagues  and  the  main 
body  of  his  coreligionists  by  the  lines  of  the  hostile  army,  lie 
held  together  and  superintended  all  the  border  segments  of 
Methodism.  He  also  found  opportunity  to  give  episcopal  over- 
sight to  the  distressed  and  widely  separated  circuits  on  the 
Pacific  Coast.  With  the  clearing  away  of  the  smoke  of  war, 
he  came  to  the  General  Conference  of  1866,  leading  the  dele- 
gations from  these  Conferences  and  giving  account  of  a  stew- 
ardship discharged  in  troublous  times. 

The  younger  colleague,  Bishop  Pierce,  was  Saxon  in  stature, 
temper,  and  tradition.  His  education  was  of  the  schools,  and 
his  mental  movements  were  classic;  but  it  is  clear  that  his 
eloquence  and  power  as  a  preacher  streamed  from  the  deeps 
of  a  consciousness  in  which  the  life  of  God  moved  like  an 
undertow  of  the  ocean.  His  life  left  a  lasting  fragrance  upon 
the  places  that  knew  him,  and  his  memory  speaks  in  the  silence. 

Bishop  Paine  was  a  man  of  quiet  spirit,  handsome  and  com- 
manding of  person,  a  scholar  by  training,  and  more  adapted 
to  the  work  of  teaching  than  to  the  demands  of  public  speak- 
ing and  administration.  He  was,  however,  not  without  cer- 
tain marks  of  distinction  both  as  preacher  and  administrator. 
He  came  to  an  early  leadership,  being  an  active  member  of  the 
General  Conference  of  1844  and  one  of  the  committee  of  nine 
appointed  to  draw  up  the  Plan  of  Separation.  He  was  also 
active  in  the  Louisville  Convention  of  1845,  which  organized 
the  Southern  Conferences  into  a  separate  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction, thus  completing  the  action  of  the  General  Conference 
of  the  undivided  Church.  As  the  author  of  "The  Life  of  Bishop 
McKendree"  he  rendered  the  Church  a  lasting  service,  leaving 
in  that  work  a  repository  of  invaluable  first-hand  information 
concerning  the  period  of  the  administration  of  the  first  native 
American  bishop.    His  death  occurred  October  10,  1882. 

Bishop  Parker  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  but 


Death  of  Bishop  Parker — Connectional  Officer*.  51 


he  came  to  the  South  at  an  early  age  and  fully  identified  him- 
self with  the  social  and  religious  life  of  his  adopted  people. 
He  was  a  man  of  impressive  presence;  his  mind  was  cultured 
and  richly  stored  with  the  results  of  discriminating  study; 
''his  heart  was  radiant  with  the  image  and  superscription  of 
God."  He  made  a  faithful  record  as  pastor  and  presiding 
elder;  but  his  most  noteworthy  service  to  the  Church  before  his 
election  to  the  episcopal  office  was  rendered  as  editor  of  the 
yew  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  which  post  has  been  occu- 
pied by  several  of  the  most  distinguished  men  known  to  the 
history  of  the  Connection.  His  death,  which  occurred  March 
5,  1885,  was  unexpected  and  proved  a  great  shock  to  the 
Church. 

The  saying  that  "God  buries  his  workmen  and  carries  on 
his  work"  is  well  illustrated  in  the  conjunction  of  the  memo- 
rial and  electoral  functions  of  a  Methodist  General  Conference. 
After  taking  sad  and  reverent  leave  of  the  fallen  chief  pastors, 
the  delegations  turned  to  the  task  of  electing  their  successors. 
On  May  18,  188G,  William  W.  Duncan,  Charles  B.  Galloway, 
Eugene  R.  Hendrix,  and  Joseph  S.  Key  were  duly  elected  to 
the  episcopacy.  Of  these,  the  two  first-named  have  fulfilled 
the  days  of  their  earthly  office  and  have  gone  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  immortals;  the  third,  by  order  of  active  incum- 
bency, is  senior  of  the  Episcopal  College ;  and  the  fourth  is  on 
the  retired  roll,  being  well  past  the  eightieth  year  of  his  life,  so 
rapidly  does  time  bring  its  changes  and  fulfillments.  In  proper 
connections  these  names  of  the  dead  and  the  living  will  have 
fuller  presentation  in  this  narrative. 

Next  in  point  of  interest  after  the  selections  made  by  a 
General  Conference  for  the  life-term  office  of  the  episcopacy 
are  the  elections  held  to  fill  the  various  connectional  editor- 
ships and  secretarial  posts.  The  importance  of  these  selec- 
tions does  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  responsibility  of 
episcopal  oversight.  If  possible,  these  connectional  responsi- 
bilities more  directly  and  vitally  touch  the  actual  being  of  the 
Church.  Consciously  and  unconsciously,  the  departmental 
administrations  shape  and  determine  ecclesiastical  policies. 
The  aggregate  of  influence  exercised  through  them  is  the  chief 
determinative  in  connectional  affairs.    This  serves  to  empha- 


52 


History  of  Methodism. 


size  the  need  of  faithfulness  and  loyalty  in  assigning  men  to 
these  trusts.  They  might  easily  be  turned  to  selfish  or  partisan 
ends;  it  is  a  test  of  character  when  they  are  not.  The  charge 
of  ecclesiastical  politics  has  often  been  brought  in  connection 
with  the  seeking  and  administration  of  Church  office.  Perhaps 
the  charge  has  not  always  been  wholly  groundless;  human 
nature  is  rarely  exempt  from  some  degree  of  just  impugnment. 
But  it  may  be  confidently  asserted  here  that  the  men  who  have 
represented  official  Methodism  in  these  latitudes  have  been 
as  free  from  the  often-brought  charge  of  self-seeking,  as  also 
from  the  selfish  use  of  office,  as  any  body  of  ecclesiastics  on 
earth.  Nomination  in  any  form  for  official  recognition  has 
happily  been  frowned  upon,  and  the  vice  of  electioneering  has 
been  counted  a  mortal  sin.  Perhaps  there  have  been  abate- 
ments and  shrivings  on  the  part  of  forbearing  constituencies, 
but  the  rule  has  been  healthily  and  persistently  maintained. 
Woe  worth  the  day  that  brings  an  abrogation  of  it! 

On  May  21  the  General  Conference  began  balloting  for  con- 
nectional  officers,  with  the  result  that  the  following-named  in- 
cumbents were  reelected:  J.  B.  McFerrin,  Book  Agent;  W.  P. 
Harrison,  Book  Editor;  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  Editor  Christian 
Advocate;  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  Sunday  School  Editor; 
David  Morton,  Church  Extension  Secretary.  I.  G.  John  was 
elected  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions.  With  a  single  ex- 
ception, these  distinguished  men  served  through  the  quadren- 
nium  for  which  they  were  elected.  The  one  to  fall  was  the 
tallest  cedar  of  the  grove,  John  B.  McFerrin.  On  May  10, 
1887,  he  expired  at  his  post.  He  was  mighty  and  valorous  in 
the  kingdom  of  spiritual  men.  His  was  another  generation 
than  that  to  which  his  last  service  was  given.  He  belonged 
to  the  fellowship  of  Sonle  and  Kavanaugh,  of  Green  and  Paine. 
Lacking  but  a  single  month  of  being  eighty  years  of  age,  lie 
had  outlived  all  his  compeers,  not  only  bringing  a  memory  of 
the  old  order  over  to  the  new,  but  fixing  that  memory  in  the 
place  of  assemblies.  He  was  active  and  masterful  to  the  Inst 
year  of  his  life.  Gaelic  in  blood,  with  a  rugged  and  muscu- 
lar body  that  might  have  descended  from  the  Anakim,  he 
accentuated  the  ministry  of  righteousness  in  heroic  deeds 
of  sacrifice  and  self-devotion.    His  mighty  voice  matched  a 


An  Archon — Church  Psalmody. 


53 


mighty  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  message.  When  he  spoke 
men  listened,  and  listened  to  tremble  and  believe.  In  his  early 
ministry  he  was  a  missionary  to  the  Cherokee  Indians,  whose 
language  he  spoke.  He  was  also  circuit  rider,  station  preacher, 
presiding  elder,  Missionary  Secretary,  and  Publishing  Agent. 
More  than  once  he  was  within  a  stride  of  the  episcopacy ;  and 
the  failure  of  the  delegations  to  call  him  was  not  due  to  as- 
sessed unfitness,  but  to  the  presence  in  his  Conference  of  other 
men  of  commanding  fitness  whose  popularity  divided  the  bal- 
lots at  the  times  of  choosing.  To  his  enthusiastic  leadership 
as  a  human  means  the  cause  of  missions  in  the  Church  owes 
the  fact  of  its  having  lived  through  the  crucial  times  immedi- 
ately following  the  War  between  the  States.  It  was  also  under 
his  leadership  that  the  Publishing  House  at  Nashville  was 
rescued  from  bankruptcy  between  1878  and  1882.  He  was  the 
Church's  champion  in  many  an  exigency.  His  place  amongst 
the  archons  is  large  and  secure. 

The  psalmody  of  Methodism  has  from  the  beginning  been 
its  confessional  literature  preeminent.  The  ordo  salutis  of 
its  theology  has  been  written  in  its  songs.  Therethrough  its 
doctrines  of  repentance,  faith,  and  the  experience  of  salvation 
have  been  voiced.  Many  years  ago  a  Unitarian  expressed  the 
belief  that  Christianity  had  been  kept  Trinitarian  by  the 
constant  singing  of  Bishop  Ken's  doxology,  "Praise  God,  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow."  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  constant  singing  of  Charles  Wesley's  hymns  will  prove  a 
mighty  help  in  maintaining  through  the  years  the  soundness 
of  Methodist  faith.  From  the  organization  of  the  General  Con- 
ference, in  1846,  to  the  meeting  of  the  tenth  (twenty-fifth)  Gen- 
eral Conference,  in  1886,  a  period  of  forty  years,  the  Southern 
Church  had  not  cared  to  revise  its  hymn  book,  which  was 
plethoric  both  of  numbers  and  lines.  An  abridged  edition  had 
been  put  out,  but  the  shape  of  each  was  unsatisfactory.  New 
and  unauthorized  hymns  were  coming  into  use  in  the  pulpits 
and  social  meetings  of  the  Church.  It  was  the  nascent  era  of 
the  so-called  gospel  song,  the  rondel  that  trips  to  lighter  notes 
than  do  the  chorals  of  the  older  collections.  In  calling  atten- 
tion to  this  innovation,  the  bishops  said:  "Among  subtle  in- 
fluences for  mischief  which  the  passing  years  have  more  dis- 


51  History  of  Methodism. 

tinctlv  brought  out  is  the  introduction  of  a  foreign  psalmody 
into  our  social  meetings,  our  Sunday  schools,  and  occasionally 
into  our  pulpits.  .  .  .  The  General  Conference  should  as- 
sume full  control  of  our  psalmody." 

As  a  means  of  preventing  the  threatened  substitution  of  the 
Methodist  hyinnary,  the  General  Conference  resolved  to  order 
a  revision  of  the  old  hymn  book.  The  commission  appointed 
to  accomplish  this  revision  went  promptly  to  its  work.  The 
new  arrangement  presented  a  hymnal  reduced  in  bulk  and 
containing  many  new  hymns  and  songs.  It  became  immensely 
popular  and  went  far  toward  arresting  the  tendency  complained 
of.  This  hymn  book  maintained  its  hold  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  Hymnal  now  in  use.  This 
last-named  Hymnal  was  prepared  by  a  joint  commission  of  the 
two  Churches,  North  and  South,  after  labors  extending  over 
nearly  four  years.  The  General  Conference  of  the  Southern 
Church  in  1886  had  expressed  the  wish  that  some  day  this  con- 
summation might  come.  The  Conference,  by  resolution,  said :  "It 
is  pleasant  to  hope  that  a  day  may  come  when  the  inheritors 
of  a  common  faith  may  use  a  common  Hymnal.  It  is  well  to 
keep  this  ideal  tfefore  us."  In  1894  the  General  Conference  of 
the  Church,  South,  in  response  to  a  suggestion  of  the  Ecumen- 
ical Conference  of  1801,  appointed  a  general  commission  on 
federation,  inviting  the  Church,  North,  to  appoint  a  similar 
body  to  act  with  it.  The  General  Conference  of  that  Church 
which  met  in  Chicago  in  1806  accepted  this  invitation.  The 
two  commissions  met  in  joint  session  in  Foundry  Church,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  in  January,  1808.  One  of  the  conclusions  reached 
at  this  meeting  was  to  the  effect  that  the  time  had  come  for 
the  two  Churches  to  join  in  the  preparation  of  a  common  Hym- 
nal. The  recommendation  being  made  to  the  two  General  Con- 
ferences, it  was  formally  adopted  by  each.  The  Joint  Hymnal 
Commission  held  its  first  session  in  Nashville,  Tenn..  in  Jan- 
uary. 1003,  and  finished  its  work  in  Washington  City  in  De- 
cember of  the  same  year.  The  book  was  finally  published  with 
the  imprint  of  the  two  Churches  in  1006.  being  the  first  ripe 
fruit  of  Methodist  cooperation.  In  connection  with  this  rec- 
ord it  is  to  be  noted  that  a  commission  similarly  originated 
and,  working  simultaneously,  returned  the  Joint  Catechism 


Order  of  Service — Quarterly  Review. 


55 


now  in  use  in  the  two  Churches,  as  also  the  present  admirably 
adapted  common  Order  of  Service;  which  several  mutualities 
have  tended  to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  union  and  fraternity. 

Amongst  the  many  publication  problems  of  the  Church  dur- 
ing the  period  of  rehabilitation  following  the  War  between 
the  States,  none  had  been  more  difficult  than  that  of  maintain- 
ing the  Quarterly  Review.  A  literary  organ  of  the  highest 
grade  has  always  been  regarded  as  indispensable  in  the  pub- 
lication lists  of  a  Church.  The  Church  needs,  and  the  logic 
of  its  thought  demands  that  there  be  maintained,  a  medium 
through  which  it  may  sound  the  testing  notes  of  doctrinal  in- 
tegrity and  orthodoxy.  This  office  falls  to  the  Church  Review 
as  to  no  other  denominational  agency.  At  the  session  of  the 
first  General  Conference  of  the  Southern  Church,  held  in  May, 
1846,  the  publication  of  the  Quarterly  Review  was  authorized, 
and  Dr.  Henry  B.  Bascom  was  named  as  its  editor.  He  had 
carried  it  into  its  fourth  volume,  when  the  General  Conference 
of  1850  called  him  to  the  episcopacy.  Dr.  David  S.  Doggett, 
a  man  of  fine  qualities  and  many  accomplishments,  was  named 
as  his  successor.  For  eight  years — from  1850  to  1858 — he  con- 
tinued to  carry  this  responsibility,  which,  because  the  Review 
did  not  yield  an  adequate  revenue,  had  to  be  supported  in  con- 
nection with  other  tasks.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1858 
the  conduct  of  the  Review  was  made  a  function  of  the  Book 
Editorship,  to  which  post,  in  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  fruit- 
ful incumbency,  was  elected  Thomas  O.  Summers,  without  draw- 
ing upon  the  results  of  whose  labors  the  history  of  the  Meth- 
odism of  the  South  for  a  full  quarter  century  could  not  well 
be  written.  With  the  seizure  of  the  Publishing  House  at  Nash- 
ville by  the  Federal  military  authorities  in  18G2,  and  the  con- 
sequent collapse  of  its  business,  the  publication  of  the  Review 
was  suspended.  ^Resumption  of  publication  in  the  years  im- 
mediately succeeding  the  war  was  impossible;  but  in  January, 
1867,  Albert  Taylor  Bledsoe  began  in  Baltimore  the  publica- 
tion of  a  quarterly  known  as  the  Southern  Review.  No  peri- 
odical published  in  the  Southern  half  of  the  continent  had  ever 
attained  so  wide  and  certain  an  influence.  This  influence  ex- 
tended beyond  the  Sv?a,  where  its  editor  was  freely  spoken  of 
as  "America's  great  thinker."   The  Review  not  only  dealt  with 


56 


History  of  Methodism. 


American  social  and  political  problems,  but  the  pen  of  its 
editor  cultivated  the  wider  fields  of  philosophy,  literature,  and 
theology.  The  editorial  output  was  truly  astonishing,  both  as 
to  quantity  and  range  of  theme.  A  demiurge  seemed  to  have 
concreted  all  masteries  into  a  single  brain  and  taken  his  place 
upon  the  tripod.  Its  editor  being  a  Methodist  layman,  who 
a  little  later  entered  the  local  ministry,  the  people  called  Meth- 
odists felt  a  peculiar  loyalty  for  the  Review.  In  1870  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  accepted  the  proposition  of  Dr.  Bledsoe  to 
adopt  the  Review  as  its  representative  connectional  publica- 
tion. That  relation  began  with  the  issue  of  July,  1870.  The 
subsequent  numbers,  continuing  to  the  close  of  1877,  in  De- 
cember of  which  year  the  distinguished  editor  passed  away, 
are  a  repository  of  theological  and  philosophical  thought  of 
such  excellence  as  to  constitute  a  library  in  themselves.  Mrs. 
Sophia  Bledsoe  Herrick,  daughter  of  Dr.  Bledsoe,  who  for  some 
time  before  his  death  had  been  associated  with  her  father  in 
the  editorial  conduct  of  the  Review,  continued  its  publication 
for  a  year,  when  it  ceased.  This  distinguished  woman  at  this 
writing  (February,  1916)  is  still  living  at  a  venerable  age, 
and  in  her  home,  in  Berkeley,  Cal.,  is  engaged  in  literary  pur- 
suits. 

Tn  1878  the  Church  again  took  up  the  question  of  publishing 
a  quarterly.  At  the  General  Conference  of  that  year  it  was 
determined  to  resuscitate  the  enterprise.  A  committee  of  pub- 
lication was  appointed,  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Hinton,  D.D.,  of  the 
South  Georgia  Conference,  was  chosen  as  editor.  For  two 
years  he  carried  the  burden  of  this  office  without  remuneration. 
In  18S0  the  task  was  again  laid  upon  the  hands  of  Dr.  Sum- 
mers, who  continued  to  carry  it  until  May,  1882,  at  which  time 
he  died  while  discharging  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference.  Since  then  the  Review  has  been  edited  by  the 
successive  Book  Editors  of  the  Church,  W.  P.  Harrison,  J.  J. 
Tigert,  Gross  Alexander,  and  H.  M.  Du  Bose,  as  a  fixed  part  of 
their  official  duty. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Fraternal  Visitors — Other  Fallen  Workers — Deaths  of  Leaders  in  the 
North — General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  1888 — Missionary  Episcopate — Methodist 
Protestants  and  Lesser  Bodies — Episcopalianism — Canadian  Method- 
ism— British  Methodism — World  Missionary  Conference — Australia 
and  Africa— Colored  Churches— 1884-1889  (Concluded). 

THE  new  times  had  brought  general  and  cordial  fraternal 
visitation  amongst  the  continental  Methodist  Churches. 
As  early  as  1878  the  Methodist  Church  in  Canada  had  ac- 
credited fraternal  messengers  to  the  Church  in  the  South. 
These  first  visitors  were  the  Rev.  George  Douglass,  LL.D., 
Vice  President  of  the  Canadian  body,  a  man  almost  unsur- 
passed for  eloquence  in  his  time,  and  Hon.  Judge  Wilmot, 
D.C.L.  The  message  and  personality  of  Dr.  Douglass  left  a 
memory  which  passed  unimpaired  to  another  generation.  In 
1882  the  Rev.  Howard  Sprague,  A.M.,  was  messenger;  and  in 
1886  the  Rev.  William  Briggs,  D.D.,  the  present  venerable 
Book  Steward  of  the  Church,  as  messenger  established  himself 
in  an  acquaintanceship  with  the  preachers  of  the  South  which 
has  kept  his  name  all  but  as  familiarly  before  them  as  that 
of  one  of  their  own  leaders.  To  this  Conference  came  also  the 
Rev.  John  Miley,  D.D.,  to  speak  the  greetings  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  His  mes- 
sage and  the  reception  given  him  described  a  new  stage  in 
the  advance  of  fraternity.  The  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  America  was  represented  by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Phillips, 
since  made  a  bishop  in  that  Connection.  Formal  visits  with 
the  British  Connection  began  to  be  exchanged  at  a  later  date. 

The  three  years  which  included  and  succeeded  the  year  in 
which  was  held  the  Centenary  Conference  witnessed  the  pass- 
ing away  of  a  number  of  the  later  leaders  of  the  Methodism  of 
the  South.  Amongst  these  are  to  be  recorded  the  names  of 
Charles  W.  Miller,  D.D.,  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and 
Albert  H.  Bedford,  D.D.,  of  the  Louisville  Conference.  Dr. 
Miller,  who  died  January  10,  1885,  had  been  a  member  of  every 
General  Conference  following  the  close  of  the  War  between 

(57) 


58 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  States.  He  was  author,  controversialist,  and  successful 
preacher  and  pastor.  Dr.  Bedford  wrote  a  number  of  valuable 
books,  amongst  them  a  "History  of  the  Organization  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,"  and  "Life  and  Times  of 
Bishop  Kavanaugh."  He  was  Book  Agent  from  1866  to  1878, 
the  period  in  which  the  publishing  interests  of  the  Church 
reached  a  point  of  great  depression  through  distressed  condi- 
tions of  the  country's  finances.   He  died  October  17,  1884. 

The  Louisville  Conference,  paying  a  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Dr.  Bedford,  said: 

A  spirit  of  forgiveness  to  all  mankind  sweetened  his  last  hours.  On 
his  deathbed  he  testified  to  the  integrity  of  his  intentions  and  his  fidelity 
to  the  trusts  committed  to  his  hands,  believing  that  his  business  trans- 
actions were  right,  as  well  as  the  state  of  his  heart.  His  last  utter- 
ances were  full  of  triumph  and  exultation.  ...  So  passed  the  clos- 
ing scenes  of  an  eventful  life.  So  passed  away  one  who  had  been  for 
many  years  as  influential  and  as  much  honored  as  any  man  whose 
name  was  ever  recorded  on  the  roll  of  the  honored  of  the  Louisville 
Conference. 

Elsewhere  in  the  Connection  death  had  levied  tribute  of  the 
ranks  of  the  leaders.  Bev.  Francis  Asbury  Mood,  D.D.,  who 
died  at  Waco,  Tex.,  November  11,  1884,  was  the  founder  of 
the  Southwestern  University,  an  institution  out  of  which  has 
grown  the  magnificent  new  educational  movement  known  as 
the  Southern  Methodist  University.  He  was  a  native  of  South 
Carolina  and  of  distinguished  descent.  To  the  Bev.  Harvey 
F.  Johnson,  D.D.,  of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  is  largely  due 
the  honor  of  rehabilitating  the  cause  of  female  education  in  the 
Southwest  after  the  years  of  war.  The  Whitworth  Female 
College,  in  Mississippi,  stands  as  an  enduring  monument  to  "his 
tireless  labors  and  foresight.  He  died  August  4,  1886.  Bev. 
Hugh  A.  C.  Walker,  D.D.,  a  leader  of  South  Carolina  Meth- 
odism, passed  away  on  the  22d  of  May,  1886.  Affectionate 
tribute  was  paid  to  his  memory  by  the  General  Conference, 
then  sitting  in  the  city  of  Richmond.  The  year  following  this 
General  Conference  the  Virginia  and  the  South  Carolina  Con- 
ferences were  called  upon  to  mourn  the  death,  each,  of  a  great 
man  and  an  educational  leader.  The  Bev.  William  Wallace 
Bennett,  D.D.,  was  for  nine  years  President  of  Bandolph- 


Deaths  of  Representative  Men. 


59 


Macon  College  at  "a  crucial  period  of  its  history,"  but  left  it 
"an  enduring  monument  to  his  heroic  devotion."  For  a  num- 
ber of  years  also  he  was  editor  of  the  Richmond  Christian 
Advocate.  His  death  occurred  June  7,  1887.  Rev.  A.  M.  Shipp, 
D.D.,  was  a  preeminent  scholar  and  was  also  esteemed  an 
"Israelite  without  guile."  Most  of  his  labors  were  given  di- 
rectly to  the  cause  of  Christian  education.  As  Professor  of 
History  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  President  of  Wof- 
ford  College,  and  Professor  and  Dean  of  the  Theological  De- 
partment of  Vanderbilt  University,  as  well  as  Vice  Chancellor, 
he  completed  thirty-five  years  of  continuous  educational  work. 
His  death  occurred  at  his  home,  in  South  Carolina,  June  27, 
1887. 

In  the  list  of.  remembered  dead  for  the  year  1887  appears 
the  name  of  the  Rev.  A.  R.  Winfield,  D.D.,  of  the  Little  Rock 
Conference,  an  unusually  brilliant  preacher,  Church  editor, 
and  legislator.  His  name,  with  that  of  Andrew  Hunter, 
eclipses  every  other  name  in  the  Methodist  annals  of  Arkansas. 
He  expired,  after  a  brief  illness,  on  December  26,  1887.  The 
Rev.  N.  H.  D.  Wilson,  D.D.,  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference, 
who  died  in  May  of  the  same  year,  was  a  member  of  the  old 
guard,  a  trusted  representative  of  his  brethren  in  many  con- 
nectional  responsibilities.  No  voice  or  face  was  more  familiar 
than  was  his  in  the  General  Conferences  of  his  time.  Much 
important  legislation  was  both  suggested  and  influenced  by 
him. 

But  the  Church's  crown  of  sorrow  came  this  year  in  the 
death  of  its  historian,  lawyer,  and  prince  of  administrators, 
Bishop  Holland  N.  McTyeire.  Bishop  McTyeire  was  born  in 
Barnwell  District,  S.  C,  July  24,  1824,  of  an  ancestry  which 
supported  the  best  traditions  of  that  State.  After  preparatory 
training  at  Cokesbury  and  Collinswood  schools,  he  matricu- 
lated at  Randolph-Macon  College,  in  Virginia,  from  which  in- 
stitution he  graduated  and  immediately  entered  the  traveling 
connection.  His  ministry  began  in  1845,  the  year  of  the  Louis- 
ville Convention,  so  that  he  became  one  of  the  earliest  recruits 
of  the  itinerancy  of  the  new  jurisdiction.  His  first  appoint- 
ment was  at  Williamsburg,  the  early  capital  of  Virginia,  the 
scene  of  Patrick  Henry's  famous  oration.   The  next  year  he  was 


60 


History  of  Methodism. 


transferred  to  Alabama.  In  1840  he  became  a  member  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference,  being  stationed  at  New  Orleans.  From 
1851  to  1858  he  was  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Ad- 
vocate. At  the  memorable  General  Conference  of  1S58  he  was 
made  editor  of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate.  The  mili- 
tary occupation  of  Nashville  in  1862  put  an  end  to  the  publi- 
cation of  that  journal,  and  its  editor  retired  to  Alabama  to 
become  a  pastor  in  Montgomery,  where  he  was  serving  at  the 
time  of  his  election  to  the  episcopacy,  in  1866. 

Bishop  McTyeire  was  a  man  of  marked  individuality.  From 
any  viewpoint,  his  character  challenges  study  and  commands 
respect.  His  manner  often  seemed  stern.  He  was  constantly 
reticent  and  not  seldom  appeared  to  be  unsympathetic;  but 
those  who  knew  him  intimately  found  him  to  be  the  contrary 
of  all  these.  Desire  for  accuracy  made  him  slow  of  speech  and 
commitment.  The  sense  of  responsibility  made  him  reserved 
and  so  gave  him  the  appearance  of  lacking  warmth  and  cor- 
diality. But  in  social  intercourse  he  exhibited  a  princely 
courtesy  and  was  most  engaging  in  conversation.  He  never 
indulged  in  metaphors  nor  affected  surprising  utterances,  but 
he  was  full,  ready,  and  exact.  Eminently  practical,  he  was 
never  taken  at  a  disadvantage  and  always  returned  an  ef- 
fective answer.  He  had  looked  through  the  subjects  and  things 
with  which  he  was  called  to  deal.  As  a  Church  editor  he  used 
a  style  of  terseness  and  perspicacity  which  has  been  the  de- 
spair of  his  successors.  Dr.  W.  P.  Harrison,  himself  a  master 
of  English,  likened  his  sentences  to  the  sententious  proverbs 
of  "Lacon."  He  carried  some  elements  of  this  style  into  his 
"History  of  Methodism,"  by  which  work  he  is  to  be  best  and 
longest  remembered.  Worthily  acquired  was  his  distinction 
of  being  a  champion  of  soundness  in  doctrine  and  loyalty  to 
Wesley  an  standards.  Himself  of  heroic  faith  and  exemplary 
walk,  he  called  to  obedience  and  loyalty  from  out  the  white 
light  which  beat  upon  the  station  to  which  convention  and 
providence  had  advanced  him.  Tn  both  figure  and  spirit  he 
was  sublime.   He  had  been  born  to  lead. 

That  achievement  of  Bishop  McTyeire  which  in  his  life- 
time was  as  a  garland  of  bays  about  his  brow  lias  been  made 
to  become  to  his  memory  as  a  wreath  of  rosemary  and  rue. 


Alienation  of  Vanderbilt — Deaths  in  the  North.  Gl 


In  securing  for  the  Church  he  loved  the  munificent  gift  out  of 
which  came  Vanderbilt  University,  he  wrought  wisely  and  well, 
and  the  achievement  should  have  been  his  enduring  monu- 
ment. But,  alas!  the  graven  uncials  upon  the  urn  that  rises 
above  his  dust  and  that  of  a  mighty  kindred  have  become  a 
mockery,  and  the  beauty  that  circles  them  about  is  smothered 
in  regret.  Yet  that  urn  will  stand  as  a  protest  against  the 
faithlessness  which  has  turned  a  sacred  trust  from  its  history- 
consecrated  use. 

During  this  time  the  Church  in  the  North  had  also  suffered 
the  loss  through  death  of  not  a  few  of  its  most  distinguished 
men.  At  the  head  of  the  list  came  the  name  of  Bishop  Mat- 
thew Simpson,  one  of  the  truly  great  preachers  of  America. 
The  fame  of  his  pulpit  power  was  world-wide,  and  in  a  true 
sense  he  belonged  to  the  Church  universal.  He  died  June  18, 
J  884,  only  a  few  days  after  the  close  of  the  General  Conference 
of  that  year.  Scarcely  less  well  known  was  the  Rev.  D.  D. 
Whedon,  D.D.,  who  as  commentator  and  editor  came  to  be  to 
Methodism  in  the  Western  continent  what  Adam  Clarke  or 
Joseph  Benson  had  been  to  the  Connection  in  England.  His 
broad  and  fraternal  spirit  was  a  prophecy  of  the  new  and  hap- 
pier conditions  which  prevail  to-day.  His  death  occurred  at 
Atlantic  Highlands  June  8,  1885.  His  compeer,  the  Rev.  Dan- 
iel Curry,  D.D.,  educator  and  editor,  followed  on  August  17, 
1887.  On  September  2  of  the  same  year  passed  away  Bishop 
W.  L.  Harris,  who  more  than  any  other  American  churchman 
of  his  time  had  come  to  know  the  world-field  of  Christian 
missions.  In  1883  the  Indiana  Asbury  University  became  the 
beneficiary  of  a  munificent  gift  from  the  Hon.  Washington  C. 
De  Pauw,  a  venerable  Methodist  layman.  Against  his  protest 
the  authorities  of  the  institution  changed  its  name  to  that  of 
De  Pauw  University.  Three  years  after  this  change  was  made, 
May  5,  1887,  the  benefactor  was  translated,  leaving  his  gift 
to  multiply  its  blessings  through  future  generations.  On  Au- 
gust 3,  1886,  the  Rev.  George  C.  Haddock,  pastor  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  at  Sioux  City,  la.,  an  active  and 
earnest  advocate  of  temperance  reform,  was  brutally  assas- 
sinated. His  death,  which  was  procured  through  a  conspiracy 
of  saloon  keepers,  produced  a  profound  sensation  in  every 


G2 


History  of  Methodism. 


part  of  the  continent  and  operated  powerfully  toward  the  fur- 
therance of  general  prohibition  legislation. 

A  reference  to  the  Prohibition  issue  in  this  period  calls  to 
memory  the  name  of  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  no  less  distin- 
guished as  a  loyal  Methodist  layman  than  as  a  publicist  and 
philanthropist.  In  1888  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
on  the  Prohibition  ticket.  Of  course  his  election  was  not  ex- 
pected— least  of  all  did  he  himself  expect  it — but  it  was  char- 
acteristic of  him  to  stand  for  principle  even  at  his  own  cost. 
Many  of  the  great  reforms  and  eleemosynary  movements  of  his 
time  had  felt  and  benefited  by  his  powerful  advocacy.  He  gave 
liberally  to  the  cause  of  education,  being  especially  influential 
in  the  founding  of  Fisk  University,  a  school  for  the  negro 
race,  at  Nashville,  Tenn.  He  died  in  New  York  City  in  July, 
1800. 

The  twenty-sixth  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  met  in  New  York  City  May  1, 
1888.  Bishop  Bowman,  senior  General  Superintendent,  on  be- 
half of  his  colleagues,  presented  a  paper  calling  attention  to 
several  new  problems  which  had  arisen  under  the  operation 
of  the  law  providing  for  lay  representation  in  that  body. 
Several  women  delegates  had  been  returned  by  Annual  Con- 
ferences in  the  Middle  and  Western  States,  and  several  non- 
resident laymen  had  been  selected  by  Conferences  in  the  mis- 
sion field.  The  bishops,  in  their  judgment  expressed  in  this 
formal  way,  deferred  to  the  action  of  the  Conference;  and  so 
both  went  to  committees.  The  seating  of  nonresident  delegates 
wTas  disallowed,  while  the  verdict  in  the  case  of  the  women  wns 
that  female  representation  was  not  provided  for  in  the  Book 
of  Discipline.  Five  women  delegates,  headed  by  Miss  Frances 
E.  Willard,  the  famous  temperance  and  prohibition  advocate, 
were  present  claiming  seats.  It  was  the  emergence  of  the 
question  of  female  representation.  Though  failing  at  this  ses- 
sion, their  claims  were  destined  to  persist  and  prevail  at  a 
later  date. 

During  1liis  qnadrennium  the  membership  in  the  Nortli 
I >;isscd  the  two-million  mark,  a  figure  reached  by  the  Church, 
Son  Hi,  twenty-six  years  afterwards  and  showing  a  record  of 
growth  which  surpasses  that  of  any  other  Christian  body  in 


Prosperity — Skepticism — Worship — Constitution.  63 


the  history  of  the  world.  The  increase  from  186G  to  1015  was 
more  than  a  million  and  a  half. 

This  was  a  time  of  great  prosperity  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  northern  part  of  the  Union.  Secular  values  were  rising 
with  fabulous  rapidity,  and  the  departmental  work  of  the 
Church  in  that  section  was  moving  as  never  before.  Twelve 
theological  seminaries,  fifty-four  colleges,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty  secondary  schools  were  reported,  with  gross  endow- 
ments and  property  holdings  of  twenty -five  million  dollars. 
One  hundred  and  eleven  Conferences,  with  twelve  missions, 
represented  the  divisions  of  that  Connection  as  finally  arranged 
for  the  quadrennium. 

In  their  address  the  bishops  called  attention  to  "the  subtle 
and  ever-varying  forms  of  skepticism  rife  in  our  times"  and 
to  "the  astounding  self-assurance  with  which  philosophical  va- 
garies long  since  exploded  are  dealt  out  as  brilliant  novel- 
ties." The  era  of  discussional  pragmatism  was  well  begun  in 
the  latitudes  of  both  the  Churches.  In  this  connection  the 
bishops  also  deplored  the  fact  that  the  ministerial  supply  was 
falling  far  short  of  the  Church's  demands,  both  in  its  home  and 
its  foreign  field. 

The  matter  of  an  "order  of  worship"  was  at  this  time 
brought  into  view  for  legislative  consideration.  No  direct 
action  was  taken,  but  the  incident  may  be  accepted  as  the  his- 
toric beginning  of  the  idea  now  embodied  in  the  joint  Order 
of  Worship  adopted  by  the  commissions  of  the  two  Churches 
nearly  ten  years  ago. 

The  question  of  "What  is  the  constitution  of  the  Church?" 
came  up  under  the  discussion  on  laity  rights  and  other  issues 
injected  into  it.  This  important  legal  matter — the  identifica- 
tion of  constitutional  paragraphs — was  some  years  afterwards 
settled  in  an  arrangement  of  the  Discipline  which  leaves  the 
issue  quiescent,  but  not  a  finality.  The  whole  constitutional 
question  is  in  a  flux  in  the  councils  and  legislation  of  the 
Church,  South.  It  is  preeminently  a  problem  of  the  here  and 
the  hereafter  of  Methodism.  When  settled,  the  record  will 
occupy  a  much  smaller  space  than  is  now  generally  suspected. 
But  a  manual  of  history  should  not  be  made  a  forum  for  the 
discussion  of  unsettled  issues.   The  lists  are  still  open. 


64 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  General  Conference  at  this  time  received  fully  upon  its 
shield,  and  at  last  yielded  to,  several  historic  innovations.  The 
more  important  of  these  were  the  adoption  of  the  principle  of 
the  missionary  bishopric,  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  order 
of  deaconess,  and  the  extension  of  the  pastoral  term.  The  un- 
limited pastoral  term,  however,  was  reached  by  stages.  At  this 
time  a  rule  was  passed  fixing  the  tenure  at  five  years  in  ten  for 
stations  and  circuits  and  six  years  in  twelve  for  the  presiding 
eldership. 

In  1884  the  Rev.  William  Taylor,  D.D.,  had  been  elected 
missionary  bishop  of  Africa.  The  demand  for  an  extension 
of  the  missionary  episcopate  raised  the  question  of  the  juris- 
diction of  the  incumbent.  The  original  bishops  had  general 
jurisdiction.  Should  the  missionary  bishops  have  jurisdic- 
tion only  in  their  own  districts  or  fields?  The  General  Con- 
ference defined  the  office  thus :  1.  A  missionary  bishop  is  for 
a  special  field.  2.  He  is  not  a  General  Superintendent.  3.  He 
is  coordinate  with  the  General  Superintendents  in  his  own  field. 
4.  He  cannot  become  a  General  Superintendent  except  by  elec- 
tion of  the  General  Conference.  In  further  illustration  of  its 
faith  in  the  principle  thus  adopted,  the  Conference  at  this 
sitting  elected  the  Rev.  John  M.  Thoburn,  D.D.,  to  be  mis- 
sionary bishop  of  India  and  Malaysia.  It  also  elected  the  fol- 
lowing-named ministers  to  the  general  super  in  tendency — viz.: 
The  Rev.  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  J.  X.  FitzGerald,  D.D., 
the  Rev.  Isaac  W.  Joyce,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  John  P.  Newman,  D.D., 
and  the  Rev.  David  A.  Goodsell,  D.D.,  the  first-named  of  whom 
alone  survives. 

The  fraternal  greetings  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  were  borne  to  this  sitting  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  A.  Steel, 
D.D.,  a  man  of  brilliant  gifts,  who  prophesied  the  complete 
reconciliation  of  Methodism  and  extolled  the  blessedness  of 
fraternity.  The  address  stands  as  a  notable  utterance.  The 
General  Conference  rounded  out  its  work  by  the  election  of 
eonnectional  officers  as  follows:  John  M.  Phillips  and  Sand- 
ford  Hunt,  Publishing  Agents  at  New  York  ;  Earl  Cranston 
and  W.  P.  Stowe,  Cincinnati;  C.  C.  McCabe,  J.  O.  Peck,  and 
A.  B.  Leonard.  Missionary  Secretaries;  A.  J.  Kynett,  Secre- 
tary Board  of  Church  Extension ;  J.  L.  Hurlbut.  Secretary 


Further  Losses — Methodist  Protestants — Smaller  Bodies.  65 


Sunday  School  Union  and  Tract  Society;  0.  H.  Payne,  Sec- 
retary Board  of  Education;  J.  W.  Mendenhall,  Editor  Meth- 
odist Review;  and  J.  M.  Buckley,  Editor  Christian  Advocate. 

Following  the  session  of  the  General  Conference,  the  Church 
suffered  further  losses  from  death  in  the  ranks  of  its  leading 
ministers.  Dr.  J.  M.  Phillips,  whose  election  as  Publishing 
Agent  has  been  noted,  died  January  15,  1889,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Dr.  Homer  Eaton.  On  August  4  of  the  same  year 
died  Dr.  J.  H.  Bayliss,  noted  as  successful  pastor  and  editor. 
On  May  7,  1890,  the  name  of  Dr.  Joseph  Cummings,  President 
of  Northwestern  University,  Evanston,  was  added  to  this  list. 
The  men  of  both  Churches  who  had  belonged  to  the  age  of  the 
Separation  were  passing  away. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  though  incomparably 
smaller  in  membership  than  the  Episcopal  Methodist  com- 
munions, is  yet  not  behind  in  reputable  standing  in  its  spheres 
of  influence.  Indeed,  this  Church  has  always  been  represented 
by  men  of  unusual  force  and  personality.  It  has  been  fully 
recognized  in  the  commissional  and  fraternal  movements  of 
the  past  thirty  years.  It  shared  materially  in  the  growth  fol- 
lowing the  centenary  period.  Soon  after  its  organization,  in 
1824,  it  claimed  about  fifty  thousand  members.  By  1890  this 
number  had  reached  the  neighborhood  of  a  hundred  thousand. 
The  organization  of  a  connectional  Missionary  Society  and  a 
Woman's  Board  belongs  to  the  centenary  period.  Its  mission 
field  is  chiefly  in  China  and  Japan.  Its  educational  and  pub- 
lication record  is  most  praiseworthy. 

A  few  still  smaller  Methodist  bodies  are  represented  on  the 
continent,  as :  The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  or  Connection, 
of  America,  organized  in  1843;  the  Free  Methodist  Church, 
organized  in  I860 ;  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  introduced 
from  England;  the  Independent  Methodist  Churches,  sporadic 
in  Maryland,  Tennessee,  and  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  the 
Congregational  Methodists,  originating  in  1852  and  1881.  The 
causes  of  the  origin  of  most  of  these  having  passed  away  be- 
fore the  period  of  revival,  their  growth  was  small  and  has 
continued  to  be  so.  Except  the  Independent  and  the  Congre- 
gational bodies,  they  are  little  known  in  the  field  of  the  South. 
Before  and  since  1890  several  of  the  Independent  congrega- 
5 


60 


History  of  Methodism. 


tions  entered  the  Conferences  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  two 
Episcopal  Methodist  Connections,  while  about  the  same  time  a 
considerable  section  of  the  Congregational  body  went  over  to 
the  Calvinistic  Congregational  Synod  of  New  England,  thus 
giving  that  denomination  a  footing  in  several  parts  of  the 
South,  especially  in  Georgia. 

The  spirit  engendered  by  the  Centenary  Movement  seems  to 
have  wrought  even  beyond  the  borders  of  Methodism.  While 
fraternal  exchanges  were  going  on  between  kindred  commun- 
ions, a  rapprochement  was  begun  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  The  relations  between  Methodism  and  Episcopalian- 
ism  have  always  been  unique.  Mr.  Wesley  died  an  Episco- 
palian.* It  was  long  before  Asbury  would  consent  to  cut  loose 
from  the  Church  of  England.  All,  or  most,  of  the  early  Meth- 
odist preachers  had  great  reverence  for  that  communion.  In 
fact,  American  Methodism  has  always  regarded  itself  as  the 
true  successor  of  Anglicanism  (as  that  term  is  theologically 
and  historically  defined  )  in  the  Western  world.  It  has  re- 
garded the  American  Episcopal  Church  as  a  sister  of  later 
birth.  Thus,  for  various  reasons,  Episcopalianism  has  never 
been  thought  of  by  Methodists  as  a  rival  of  their  system.  The 
relationship  has  always  been  one  of  enforced  estrangement, 
held  in  kindness  and  without  weight  of  concern.  As  early  as 
1888  addresses  were  sent  from  the  heads  of  the  Episcopal  com- 
munion to  one  or  another  of  the  American  Methodist  bodies 
suggesting  agreement  and  coalescence.  A  formal  propositiun 
of  union  was  at  this  time  addressed  from  the  Episcopal  con- 
vention to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South;  but  as  the 
address  mentioned  the  acceptance  of  "the  historic  episcopate'' 
as  a  basis  of  negotiation,  the  proposition  could  not  be  officially 
considered.  It  is  only  just  to  add  here  that  in  more  recent 
years  the  councils  of  that  Church  have  made  a  commendable 
movement  toward  Christian  union  and  have  shown  a  disposi- 
tion to  considerably  modify  the  early  High-Church  conditions 
of  accommodation. 

The  centenary  year  witnessed  the  complete  union  into  one 


*Mr.  Wesley  also  considered  himself  a  bishop  in  the  American  Meth- 
odist Church. 


Canadia n  Ch urch es . 


67 


body  of  the  several  Methodist  Churches  of  the  Dominion  of 
Canada  and  Newfoundland.  The  leaven  of  union  had  been 
at  work  for  a  decade  or  two  before,  the  first  coalescence  of 
separate  bodies  having  occurred  in  1874;  but  it  was  not  until 
the  meeting  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference  of  1881  that  the 
movement  acquired  the  momentum  which  insured  complete  in- 
tegration. 

Lawrence  Coughlan,  who  afterwards  attached  himself  to  the 
Church  of  England,  was  the  first  Methodist  to  preach  on  the 
soil  of  Canada.  He  reached  Newfoundland  in  1705,  one  year 
before  Philip  Embury  began  his  work  in  New  York,  but  four 
or  five  years  later  than  the  beginning  of  Strawbridge's  labors 
in  Maryland.*  In  1779  Wesleyan  Methodism  was  established 
in  Nova  Scotia.  From  this  and  the  beginning  in  Newfound- 
land the  Wesleyan  Church  developed  its  work  in  the  Maritime 
Provinces.  William  Black,  in  charge  of  the  work  in  Nova 
Scotia,  attended  the  Christmas  Conference  in  Baltimore  in 
1784.  At  this  time  the  work  was  left  to  be  a  part  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  in  America  and  was  manned  by  preach- 
ers from  the  United  States.  About  the  year  1790  William 
Losee  planted  Methodism  in  Canada  proper.  Bishop  Asbury 
visited  a  portion  of  this  field  in  1811.  The  work  had  prospered, 
but  was  destined  to  be  disturbed  and  all  but  destroyed  by  the 
effects  of  the  War  of  1812.  The  Canadians  then  appealed  to 
the  Wesleyan  Societies  in  Nova  Scotia  for  ministerial  help. 
This  help  was  sent,,  but  the  preachers  claimed  the  fruits  of 
their  labors  for  the  Wesleyan  Conference.  Much  friction  re- 
sulted in  consequence  and  in  1820  led  to  a  division  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Canada,  the  former  going  to  the  American  preach- 
ers and  the  latter  to  the  Wesleyans.  In  1828  the  American, 
or  Methodist  Episcopal,  Societies  in  Canada  were  erected  into 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada.  In  1829  the  Prim- 
itive Methodists  of  England  established  a  mission  in  the  Do- 
minion, and  the  same  year  was  formed  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Canada,  which  latter  absorbed  all  the  Wes- 

*The  fact  of  the  beginning  of  Strawbridge's  ministry  in  Maryland  as 
early  as  1762  was  established  through  the  inquiries  of  a  joint  commis- 
sion which  met  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  February,  1916,  as  noted  later  in  this 
history. 


68 


History  of  Methodism. 


leyan  work  in  the  provinces.  In  1831  the  Bible  Christians  of 
England  also  began  work  here.  Important  changes  now  look 
place.  In  1833  the  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  of  Canada  united  with  the  British  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence ;  but  a  considerable  segment  of  the  body  refused  to  accept 
the  arrangement  and  soon  afterwards  reorganized  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  of  Canada  on  a  new  foundation.  A 
fun  her  increase  in  the  number  of  Methodist  bodies  occurred 
in  1837,  when  the  missions  of  The  Methodist  New  Connection 
were  established.  Thus  originated  the  five  Methodist  Churches 
in  the  British  dominions  in  North  America,  which  in  1884  en- 
tered into  actual  and  harmonious  union  as  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada.  In  later  years  has  been  taken  the  aston- 
ishing step  of  planning  a  union  of  all  the  Churches  in  that 
country  into  a  single  Protestant  body.  At  times  the  plan  has 
seemed  near  being  realized,  but  it  is  still  to  be  conventionally 
ratified.  The  statistics  of  the  united  Methodist  Churches 
in  1884  showed  a  total  membership  of  171,554,  with  10,044 
ministers.  The  united  Connection  started  on  its  new  career 
with  a  strong  institutional  equipment  in  the  way  of  a  pub- 
lishing plant,  schools,  and  missionary  and  Sunday  school  or- 
ganizations. The  Rev.  Albert  Carman,  D.D.,  who  had  been  a 
bishop  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada,  was 
named  the  first  General  Superintendent,  with  tenure  of  eight 
years.  He  has  been  regularly  reelected  since  that  time  and 
still  survives  at  a  venerable  age,  one  of  the  best  beloved  and 
most  honored  men  in  universal  Methodism. 

With  the  new  era  ushered  in  by  the  first  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference, British  Methodism  began  to  develop  new  resources  and 
to  exhibit  the  consciousness  of  a  new  vision.  Through  the  en- 
ergy of  Charles  Brest,  Charles  Garrett,  and  others,  it  had  al 
ready  equipped  itself  with  a  variety  of  organizations  showing 
ingenuity  in  beneficence  and  elasticity  in  method."  Under 
the  leadership  of  men  like  T.  Bowman  Stephenson  and  Hugh 
Price  Hughes,  these  organizations  assumed  large  and  impor- 
tant proportions  in  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  writ 
ing.  Influential  and  wealthy  laymen,  distinguished  amongst 
whom  was  Sir  Robert  Perks,  well  known  to  American  Meth- 
odists, gave  more  than  money  to  this  movement.    Work  for 


Hugh  Price  J I  ughes — United  Methodist  Church.  69 


soldiers,  homes  for  orphans,  the  deaconess  work,  home  and  lay 
mission  work  in  destitute  parts,  and  particularly  the  erecting 
of  great  mission  halls  in  London  and  other  large  cities,  de- 
scribed the  details  of  this  practical  evangelism.  With  the  last 
of  these  organizations,  that  of  the  mission  hall  plan  of  evan- 
gelization, is  particularly  associated  the  name  of  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  a  name  familiar  to  most  Americans  of  the  last  gen- 
eration. Established  at  St.  James  Hall,  in  Piccadilly,  in  1887, 
he  began  a  work  which  gave  impetus  to  the  Forward  Movement 
not  only  in  England,  but  throughout  the  English-speaking 
world.  Hughes  was  a  Welshman,  born  in  1847.  Possessed  of 
the  fervor  of  his  race  and  of  natural  gifts  of  a  high  order,  his 
education  gave  him  fluency  of  speech  and  a  comprehensive 
grasp  of  the  problems  of  life  and  thought.  He  was  a  peerless 
debater,  a  preacher  of  evangelistic  earnestness  and  convincing- 
logic.  His  ministry  was  an  integrating  force.  Multitudes 
heard  him,  were  drawn  to  Christ  and  held  in  loyalty  of  faith 
and  service.  He  had  the  power  to  clothe  old  truths  in  current 
dress,  but  his  devotion  was  to  the  old  truths  above  all.  He 
had  become  editor  of  the  Methodist  Times  in  1885  and  carried 
that  journal  to  a  point  of  great  success.  He  also  became  wide- 
ly known  as  an  author.  His  books,  "Social  Christianity"  and 
"Philanthropy  of  God,"  wTere  measures  of  the  reach  of  his  pow- 
ers and  sympathies.  The  Rev.  Mark  Guy  Pearse,  associated 
with  him  in  the  London  mission  work,  became  also  a  world 
figure  in  Methodism  and  was  well  known  as  the  author  of 
"Daniel  Quorm."  He  visited  this  country  several  times,  as 
also  did  Mr.  Hughes.  Mr.  Hughes  died  in  London  in  1902, 
in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

A  great  numerical  growth  was  being  recorded  in  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Connection  during  the  years  of  this  period. 
At  the  end  of  the  decade  this  growth  showed  practically  a 
hundred  per  cent  increase  for  the  forty  years  reckoned  from 
1851.  The  smaller  Methodist  bodies  in  England  were  also 
sharing  in  the  prosperity  and  gravitating  toward  union.  The 
United  Free  Church  had  come  of  a  union  of  several  bodies  in 
1857.  The  resultant  body  and  those  known  as  the  Methodist 
New  Connection  and  the  Bible  Christians  now  began  to  dis- 
cuss a  basis  of  coalescence  and,  if  we  may  so  far  anticipate 


70 


History  of  Methodism, 


our  dates,  consummated  the  plans  of  union  in  1007.  The  body 
which  resulted  is  known  as  the  United  Methodist  Church.  Ai 
the  time  of  union  the  three  Churches  numbered  nearly  two 
hundred  thousand  members.  Thus  was  Methodism  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  gathered  into  three  principal  bodies,  the 
Wesleyan  Methodists  (including  Churches  in  Scotland  and 
Wales  and  the  Irish  Conference),  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church,  and  the  United  Methodist  Church.  Only  two  very 
small  bodies,  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union  and  the  Independ- 
ent Methodist  Churches,  remain  to  be  accounted  for.  The 
memberships  of  all  these  to-day  aggregate  about  one  million. 

Up  to  and  including  this  period  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Connection  had  remained  in  the  condition  of  a  ''Society,"  as 
it  had  been  left  by  Wesley  in  the  Deed  of  Declaration;  but  at 
this  time  was  begun  a  general  agitation  for  changing  that 
status.  The  movement  rapidly  crystallized  into  action,  and 
by  an  act  of  Parliament  in  1801  the  Wesleyan  Societies  be- 
came the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

The  missionary  zeal  of  the  new  age  was  well  voiced  in  a 
World  Missionary  Conference  held  in  London  in  June,  1888. 
The  Methodism  of  the  Motherland  in  its  Forward  Movement 
had  generated  a  grateful  atmosphere  for  such  a  gathering: 
and  its  representatives,  together  with  their  brethren  from 
North  America,  were  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  Methodist 
missionary  operations  throughout  the  world.  More  than  fif- 
teen hundred  men  and  women,  from  all  lands  and  speaking 
almost  every  tongue,  participated.  It  was  aptly  described  as 
"a  remarkable  exhibition  of  the  growth  and  power  of  the  mis- 
sionary movement."  One  of  the  potent  memories  of  the  gath- 
ering was  the  labors  of  Bishop  Coke,  the  founder  of  Methodist 
missions,  who  died  and  was  sepultured  in  the  Indian  Ocean 
while  on  his  way  to  establish  a  mission  in  India. 

In  far-off  Australia  the  integrating  and  expanding  power  of 
the  new  gospel  movement  was  also  being  felt  and  answered. 
The  first  step  looking  toward  the  union  of  the  Methodist 
Churches  in  Australasia  was  taken  in  1888.  At  this  time  the 
New  Connection  Churches  united  either  with  the  Wesleyan  or 
the  Bible  Christian  Conferences,  thus  preparing  the  way  for 
that  larger  union  which  came  in  the  new  century,  putting  tin' 


Australian,  Soutli  African,  and  Colored  Churches.  71 


Wesleyan  Churches  of  Australia  and  Polynesia  practically  into 
one  body  known  as  the  ''Methodist  Church  of  Australasia." 

Methodism  was  planted  in  Australia  in  1815  by  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Leigh.  From  the  beginning  the  cause  grew  steadily 
and  maintained  its  growth  with  that  of  the  country.  We  shall 
he  able  to  give  a  fuller  view  of  this  history  when  retrospecting 
it  from  the  vantage  of  the  Ecumenical  Conferences,  whose  pro- 
ceedings are  yet  to  be  reviewed. 

Methodism  in  South  Africa,  the  vast  English-  and  Dutch- 
speaking  confederation  under  the  Southern  Cross,  is  still  in 
the  missionary  state;  but  the  vision  of  an  independent  and 
united  Connection  there  is  a  certain  prophecy.  The  Wesleyan 
gospel  was  first  preached  at  Capetown  by  George  Middlemiss, 
a  British  soldier.  It  took  strong  root  in  that  growing  city 
and  with  the  English  population  spread  into  the  new  settle- 
ments northward.  After  the  Boer  War,  the  Methodists  began 
work  in  the  Transvaal  and  the  former  Orange  Free  State.  The 
advance  which  appears  to  have  been  made  there  is  equaled  only 
by  the  readiness  with  which  the  people  have  assimilated  Eng- 
lish ideals  and  imbibed  English  loyalty.  The  tale  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  remainder  of  the  "Dark  Continent"  is  a  part  of 
the  general  missionary  history  of  the  Church. 

This  reference  to  Africa,  the  racial  fatherland,  naturally 
suggests  a  review  of  the  work  done  during  this  period  by  the 
colored  Churches  in  America.  We  have  already  indicated 
something  of  the  advance  registered  by  the  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  especially  in  its  educational  affairs.  Sev- 
eral new  schools  were  either  originated  or  greatly  strength- 
ened during  the  period  following  the  sitting  of  the  Centenary 
Conference.  Amongst  these  may  be  mentioned  Paine  and  Lane 
College,  at  Jackson,  Tenn. ;  Texas  College,  at  Tyler,  Tex.;  and 
other  schools  of  high  grade  in  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  Dur- 
ing this  time  the  membership  of  the  Church,  which  in  1866  was 
about  sixty  thousand,  was  more  than  doubled. 

The  circumstances  of  the  organization,  in  Philadelphia  in 
1816,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  have  been 
fully  set  forth  in  the  sections  of  Bishop  McTyeire's  History. 
After  the  War  between  the  States,  the  membership  experienced 
a  steady  growth,  large  numbers  of  the  colored  contingent  of 


71' 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  going  over  to  its  con- 
gregations. Also,  as  the  result  of  negotiations  begun  in  1880, 
the  British  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canada 
amalgamated  with  it,  thus  extending  its  territory  and  increas- 
ing its  numbers.  At  this  time  it  experienced  a  great  mission- 
ary awakening.  Previously  it  had  maintained  missions  in 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies,  but  now  it  planted  stations  in 
South  America  and  Hawaii.  In  Africa  its  missions  soon  re- 
ported twelve  thousand  converts.  Bishops  Campbell  and  Ar- 
nett,  of  this  Church,  have  been  described  as  "notable  orators" 
and  as  having  secured  "admiration  for  themselves  and  respect 
for  their  race/*' 

The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church  is  about  equal 
in  membership  with  the  above-named  body.  It  established  a 
Foreign  Mission  Board  in  1884  and  otherwise  extended  and 
strengthened  its  connectional  equipment. 

Besides  these  three  large  bodies  of  colored  Methodists,  there 
are  in  the  country  several  smaller  bodies,  as  the  African  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Church,  the  Evangelist  Missionary  Church 
(organized  in  1886),  the  Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  the  Zion  Union  Apostolic  Church ;  but  they  have  a 
small  membership  and  have  not  to  any  marked  extent  shared 
in  the  growth  noted  in  the  other  colored  bodies.  Much  cor- 
respondence has  been  had  amongst  the  colored  Methodists 
looking  toward  organic  union,  and  at  times  the  prospect  of 
amalgamation  has  seemed  bright. 


CHAPTEK  V. 


The  Young  People's  Movement — Organization  of  the  Epworth  League — ■ 
Centennial  of  First  Conferences  Held  in  Mississippi  Valley — New 
England  Centenary — New  York  Book  Concern — General  Conference 
of  1890 — Work  in  the  West — Church  Union  in  Japan — Jewish  Mis- 
sions— Education — Board  of  Trustees — Fraternal  Greeting — Episcopal 
and  Other  Elections — Centenary  of  Wesley's  Death — Second  Ecumen- 
ical Conference — Barnes  Hospital — Scarritt  Bible  and  Training 
School— The  Holiness  Movement— 1890-1893. 

THE  characteristic  expression  of  American  Methodism  dur- 
ing the  first  quarter  of  its  second  century  was  found  in 
the  awakened  life  and  testimony  of  its  young  people.  This 
phenomenon  was  in  a  way  to  be  noticed  throughout  the  whole 
family  of  evangelical  Churches;  but  in  the  Methodist  Church 
the  movement  was  marked  by  a  tendency  to  emphasize  de- 
nominational life  and  loyalty,  while  in  the  non-Methodist 
Churches  it  was  generally  diffusive  and  nondenominational. 
It  is,  perhaps,  even  yet  too  early  to  attempt  to  assess  the  value 
of  this  so-called  Young  People's  Movement,  though  the  far- 
reaching  and  cumulative  effects  of  its  testimony  are  beyond 
any  question.  Nor  is  it  by  any  means  a  spent  force.  That  the 
ebullient  enthusiasm  of  its  early  stages  has  declined  cannot 
be  denied;  but  its  relevancy  abides,  and  its  sphere  has  long 
been  determined  and  made  secure.  Like  the  forms  of  Church 
polity  and  organization,  it  must  undergo  change  and  modi- 
fication; but  its  residuals  after  test  are,  for  the  present  and 
the  future,  a  widened  spiritual  vision  and  multiplied  forces  of 
activity  in  the  Church. 

Beyond  any  doubt,  the  pioneer  organization  in  this  field  of 
youthful  lay  activity  was  the  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor, 
of  which  the  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  a  pastor  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church,  was  the  founder  and  promoter.  But  the 
emergence  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  ideal  was  only  a  symp- 
tom of  the  fermentation  of  desire  in  the  heart  of  youthful 
Christianity  in  general.  The  existence  of  these  societies  was 
a  sign  of  the  times.  It  demonstrated  the  presence  of  "a  power 
in  the  Church  that  was  growing  restless  of  its  limitations  and 

(73) 


74 


History  of  Methodism. 


demanding  greater  and  more  varied  opportunity."  It  was 
saying:  "There  is  a  force  in  the  youth  of  the  Church  which 
is  not  being  utilized;  there  is  more  Lightning  here  than  has 
been  harnessed."  The  Epworth  League,  which  embodied  this 
movement,  as  developed  in  the  Episcopal  Methodist  Churches, 
is  the  logical  reproduction  of  the  Holy  Club  of  Oxford,  that 
fellowship  of  youthful  zeal  and  spiritual  cooperation  which 
is  the  recognized  source  of  Methodism. 

As  early  as  the  Centenary  Conference,  societies  of  the  scope 
and  object  of  the  League  existed  in  both  Methodisms.  About 
1S83  one  such  was  organized  in  Shearn  Church,  Houston,  Tex. 
Its  existence  had  a  direct  bearing  on  the  future  emergence  of 
the  Epworth  League  in  Southern  Methodism.  But  in  1889,  at 
a  convention  held  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  a  number  of  young  peo- 
ple's societies  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  wTere  amal- 
gamated into  a  union  known  from  that  time  forward  as  the 
Epworth  League.  About  the  same  time,  or  at  least  in  the  same 
year,  several  similarly  organized  young  people's  societies  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  California  and  in 
some  other  Western  States  were  brought  into  cooperation 
through  the  use  of  a  common  constitution  and  plan  of  work. 
In  May,  1890,  the  young  people's  society  of  Trinity  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  of  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  being  the  pio- 
neer society  in  this  cooperation,  addressed  through  the  Church 
Conference  a  memorial  to  the  General  Conference,  already  con- 
vened in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  asking  that  the  organization  be  recog- 
nized by  the  Church  and  made  a  part  of  its  order.  This  me- 
morial was  favorably  acted  upon,  the  General  Conference  or- 
dering the  formation  of  Leagues  for  the  "promotion  of  piety 
and  loyalty  to  our  Church  among  the  young  people,  their  edu- 
cation in  the  Bible  and  Christian  literature  and  in  the  mis- 
sionary work  of  the  Church,  and  their  encouragement  in  works 
of  grace  and  charity."  Thus  it  happened  that  the  Church  in 
the  South  was  the  first  of  the  Christian  bodies  to  make  its 
young  people's  work  a  part  of  its  organic  system. 

The  Leagues  were  at  first  put  under  the  control  of  the  Sun- 
day School  Board.  Later  on,  however,  certain  adaptations 
and  modifications  having  been  made,  the  League  in  the  South 
and  that  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Church  in 


The  Epworth  League — Two  Early  Conferences.  T.~» 


Canada  were  conformed,  and  so  an  affiliation  was  established. 
It  had  already  been  decided  that  the  Southern  League  should 
take  the  common  name  of  Epworth,  in  memory  of  the  birth- 
place of  the  Wesleys  and  the  maternal  faithfulness  of  their 
mother.  In  1804  the  General  Conference  of  the  Southern 
Church  erected  the  League  into  a  separate  connectional  de- 
partment, and  the  publication  of  a  League  paper  was  author- 
ized, Rev.  S.  A.  Steel,  D.D.,  successful  and  prominent  in  the 
pastorate,  being  elected  Secretary  and  Editor. 

The  Church  in  the  North,  though  later  than  the  Church  of 
the  South  in  making  the  League  an  organic  part  of  its  system, 
showed  greater  faith  in  its  outcome.  As  early  as  1892  it  was 
made  a  connectional  department,  and  its  work  and  administra- 
tion were  generously  provided  for.  The  Epworth  Herald  had 
already  been  enterprised  and  under  its  first  editor,  Dr.  J.  F. 
Berry,  afterwards  elected  bishop,  attained  to  a  great  circula- 
tion and  influence.  By  1893  the  membership  of  the  League  in 
the  North  was  reported  at  nearly  half  a  million.  During  the 
next  decade  the  figures  advanced  to  a  million.  In  the  South 
the  proportion  of  these  numbers  was  never  attained;  but  the 
membership  grew  with  remarkable  rapidity,  and  the  work  of 
the  League  steadily  leavened  the  life  of  the  whole  Connection. 
In  some  cases  it  revolutionized  Church  finances,  particularly 
in  the  receipts  for  missions.  It  was  an  inkhorn  scribe  that 
marked  the  elect  and  choice  of  younger  Israel.  It  may  almost 
be  said  to  have  trained  a  generation  of  men  and  women  for 
service;  it  widely  influenced  the  going  of  young  men  into  the 
ministry  and  constantly  replenished  the  ranks  of  the  mis- 
sionary workers.  It  also  created  a  taste  for  good  literature 
and  promoted  the  spirit  of  courtesy  and  sanctifying  friend- 
ship amongst  thousands  of  the  Church's  youth. 

Old  memories  and  new  ideals  began  to  have  constant  and 
inspiring  conjunction  in  the  dates  of  this  period.  On  May  15, 
1790,  at  a  point  near  Lexington,  Ky.,  Bishop  Asbury  held  the 
first  Conference  of  the  Church  west  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains. Curtiss,  the  author  of  "A  Manual  of  Methodist  His- 
tory," says  that  this  was  the  first  Conference  held  "in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,"  which  is  an  error.  The  first  Conference  held 
west  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  and  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 


70 


History  of  Methodism. 


ley  was  gathered  on  May  11,  1888,  at  Key  wood,  Va.,  in  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Holston  Conference.  But  this  Conference  of  1800 
was  of  great  historic  significance.  It  became  a  memorial  cen- 
ter to  a  group  of  more  than  fifty  Annual  Conferences.  Exer- 
cises commemorative  of  the  early  sitting  were  held  May  15, 
1890,  in  Lexington,  Ky.  In  these  exercises  both  Churches  par- 
ticipated. The  old  log  house  in  which  Asbury  conducted  this 
Conference  was  standing  at  the  time  of  the  celebration.  It  is 
located  at  a  village  known  as  Master-son's  Station  and  is  de- 
scribed as  being  "a  two-story  log  house,  about  six  miles  from 
Lexington.  The  two  rooms  and  stairway  remain  as  they  were 
a  century  ago,  and  the  original  wide  fireplace,  all  in  a  good 
state  of  preservation." 

The  scene  of  the  next  event  of  this  character  is  laid  in  New- 
England.  In  October,  1890,  the  centennial  of  the  introduction 
of  Methodism  into  that  quarter  of  the  republic  was  duly  cele- 
brated by  a  great  gathering  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston.  While 
stopping  in  company  with  Bishop  Asbury  at  an  inn  in  Cheraw, 
S.  C,  some  weeks  following  the  Christmas  Conference,  Jesse 
Lee  was  told  by  the  clerk  of  the  inn,  who  was  a  native  of  New 
England,  of  the  state  of  religion  in  that  quarter.  The  en- 
thusiastic young  Virginian  determined  to  ask  for  a  mission  to 
"the  land  of  the  Presbyterians/'  as  Bishop  Asbury  persisted 
in  calling  it;  but  it  was  five  years  before  his  wish  was  realized. 
With  the  ardor  of  an  ar>ostle,  Lee  threw  himself  into  the  work 
and,  with  the  aid  of  his  assistants,  continued  his  march  until 
he  had  published  his  message  in  the  region  of  the  Kennebec 
and  of  the  Penobscot.  It  was  from  this  last-named  region 
that  the  Church  received  Joshua  Soule,  the  author  of  its  con- 
stitution and  the  first  senior  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  In  the  language  of  our  historian,  "Jesse  Lee 
in  his  most  brilliant  daydreams  could  not  have  anticipated 
such  a  wonderful  growth  of  Methodist  Christianity  as  was 
displayed  in  this  centennial  celebration."* 

Yet  another  celebration  which  expressed  the  tremendous 
century  growth  of  Methodism  occurred  in  New  York  City 
February  11,  1890.   This  was  the  dedication  of  the  new  Meth- 


*Curtiss's  "Manual  of  Methodist  History.' 


Book  Concern — General  Conference  of  1800. 


77 


odist  Publishing  Building  at  150  Fifth  Avenue.  This  building 
and  its  equipment  to-day,  beyond  question,  represent  the  most 
considerable  publishing  concern  maintained  by  any  Protestant 
body  on  the  continent,  possibly  in  the  whole  world.  The  Book 
Concern  had  previously  occupied  two  other  sites  in  the  me- 
tropolis— namely,  200  Mulberry  Street  and  805  Broadway. 
With  these  two  older  locations  the  undivided  Methodism  from 
the  Asburian  era  to  1844  had  been  identified. 

The  second  session  of  the  Southern  General  Conference  met 
in  St.  Louis  in  1850.  Just  forty  years  from  that  date,  on  May 
7,  1890,  the  eleventh  session  (being  the  twenty-sixth  session 
since  1784)  was  held  in  the  same  city  and,  as  was  its  early 
predecessor,  in  Centenary  Church.  This  fact  not  only  called 
up  historic  memories,  but  also  suggested  a  practical  retrospect. 
In  that  time  the  Church  had  multiplied  more  than  threefold 
in  membership  and  other  material  interests,  had  maintained 
the  integrity  of  its  doctrine,  the  standard  of  its  experience, 
and  was  firmly  established  as  one  of  the  leading  Protestant 
communions  of  the  world.  The  membership  was  reported  at 
1,117,150,  being  an  increase  of  186,156  for  the  four  years. 

The  Episcopal  Address,  read  by  Bishop  Alpheus  W.  Wilson, 
contained  an  utterance  which,  in  view  of  future  developments, 
became  notable  and  prophetic.    It  said : 

We  have  reason  to  be  grateful  that  the  intellectual  and  moral  activ- 
ity of  the  age  has  disclosed  no  need  of  a  change  in  our  Articles  of  Reli- 
gion or  standards  of  doctrine,  nor  has  there  been  among  us  any  serious 
demand  for  such  change.  The  great  body  of  our  preachers  and  people 
hold  firmly  to  the  Methodist  statement  of  truth  as  being  in  full  agree- 
ment with  the  "words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  doctrine  which 
is  according  to  godliness."  That  statement  has  been  subjected  to  close 
scrutiny  by  reason  of  its  unavoidable  relations  to  other  forms  of  teach- 
ing and  has  been  fully  tested  in  its  application  to  individual  and  social 
life,  and  the  results  show  it  to  be  sufficient  as  the  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  Occasional  sporadic  efforts  have  been  made  to  induce  the 
Church  either  to  renounce  its  ancient  confession  or  to  put  upon  it  an 
interpretation  not  warranted  by  reason  or  by  the  "analogy  of  faith." 
These  have  been  successfully  resisted  by  the  fidelity  of  our  people  to  the 
teachings  out  of  which  the  organic  life  of  the  Church  has  grown  and 
by  which  its  spiritual  life  has  been  nourished.  We  trust  that  the  unity 
and  power  of  the  Church  may  remain  to  the  end  of  time  unimpaired  by 
the  intrusion  of  heresies  destructive  to  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
faith. 


78 


History  of  Methodism. 


An  account  of  the  effort  to  "restate"  the  "Ait  ides  of  Re- 
ligion," which  created  a  temporary  stir  throughout  American 
Methodism,  does  not  belong  to  the  present  chapter;  but  the 
reflection  quoted  above  may  well  be  kept  in  the  mind  of  the 
reader  against  the  chronological  juncture  which  will  bring  its 
record  into  view. 

The  Conferences  of  Southern  Methodism  in  the  farther  West 
had  been  making  steady  progress  nnder  difficulties  not  easily 
appreciated  by  the  people  at  the  home  base.  With  aid  from 
the  Church  Extension  Board,  church  buildings  and  parson- 
ages had  been  erected  at  a  number  of  strategic  points.  With 
aid  from  the  Mission  Board,  difficult  fields  had  been  held  and 
strengthened.  It  may  also  be  mentioned  in  this  connection 
that  at  this  time  the  Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission 
Society  was  chartered  by  the  General  Conference.  It  soon 
became  a  notable  force  in  supporting  the  work  of  extension 
in  the  Western  and  border  fields,  as  well  as  in  the  needy  dis- 
tricts of  older  territory.  A  token  of  growth  in  the  West  was 
the  organization  of  the  New  Mexico  and  the  East  Columbia 
Conferences,  the  one  out  of  the  westernmost  districts  of  the 
West  Texas  Conference  and  the  other  out  of  the  eastern  half 
of  the  Columbia  Conference. 

Dating  from  an  early  period,  the  Church  had  held  in  Oregon 
a  tenuous  claim  upon  a  large  State  appropriation  of  lands  for 
educational  purposes.  In  the  use  of  this  appropriation  it 
maintained  for  a  decade  or  two  a  technological  school  at  Cor- 
vallis;  but  about  this  time  the  State,  through  the  courts,  an- 
nulled the  grant.  Later  a  Conference  school  was  established 
at  Milton,  in  Oregon,  and  has  made  a  good  record. 

By  far  the  most  important  development  in  connection  with 
the  work  in  the  West  at  this  time  was  the  plan  for  establish- 
ing a  connectional  newspaper  for  the  Conferences  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  The  Pacific  Methodist,  with  a  history  going  back  al- 
most to  the  days  of  the  California  Argonauts  and  originally 
edited  by  Dr.  O.  P.  Fitzgerald  (afterwards  bishop),  and  the 
Los  Angeles  Christian  Advocate,  projected  by  W.  B.  Stradley 
about  1886,  were  offered  to  the  General  Conference,  to  be 
consolidated  into  one  representative  journal.  The  offer  was 
accepted,  and   the  Conference  appropriated  f 10,000  for  the 


Pacific  Coast  Paper — Missionary  Policy — Japan.  70 


establishment  of  the  new  enterprise.  The  name  Pacific  Meth- 
odist Advocate  was  settled  upon,  and  the  first  issue  of  the 
connectional  organ  appeared  early  in  1891,  with  H.  M.  Du  Bose 
as  editor.  From  1894  to  1901  R.  P.  Wilson  was  editor;  since 
the  latter  date  W.  E.  Vaughn  has  filled  the  editorial  chair, 
being  regularly  reelected. 

Though  at  this  date  the  figures  will  seem  disparagingly 
small,  the  Church  ordered,  as  a  means  of  "going  forward,"  an 
assessment  of  $350,000  for  missions.  It  was  also  decided  to 
elect  three  Missionary  Secretaries  and  otherwise  increase  the 
administrative  efficiency  of  the  Mission  Board.  This  policy  was 
extended  to  affiliated  organizations.  The  constitution  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  recast,  and  the  So- 
ciety was  authorized  to  extend  its  work  to  the  North  American 
Indians  and  to  the  people  of  Latin  America.  This  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  activity  in  the  school  work  of  the  Woman's 
Board.  In  Mexico  particularly  the  schools  of  the  Board  pros- 
pered to  a  remarkable  degree,  and  so  continued  until  arrested 
by  the  long  series  of  revolutions  which  have  wasted  that  un- 
happy country. 

Even  this  early  the  question  of  Methodist  union  in  Japan 
had  come  up.  In  all  the  Methodist  communions  the  feeling 
had  grown  strong  that  the  Japanese  missions  were  now  able 
to  maintain  a  native  Connection.  Indeed,  it  had  come  to  be  a 
policy  that  autonomous  native  Churches  should  be  organized 
in  all  mission  lands  where  the  progress  of  the  gospel  and  the 
spirit  of  the  people  seemed  to  justify  it.  With  reference  to 
Japan,  the  time  had  seemed  to  come  sooner  than  was  antici- 
pated; but  although  this  was  recognized,  no  final  action  was 
had  until  some  years  later. 

As  a  special  feature  of  work  in  the  home  field,  the  Board  of 
Missions,  under  direction  of  the  General  Conference,  began  a 
mission  to  the  Hebrews.  Prof.  Julius  Magath,  now  of  Emory 
University,  a  native  of  Russia,  a  minister  in  orders,  and  a 
capable  Hebrew  scholar,  was  put  in  charge  of  this  mission. 
The  work  has  not  grown  as  it  was  expected  to  do,  but  only 
through  lack  of  being  pushed  with  faith  and  vigor.  It  is  a  cause 
to  which  the  Church  should  give  more  whole-hearted  attention. 
From  time  to  time  Jewish  families  have  accepted  Christ  and  en- 


80 


7/  istory  of  Methodism. 


tered  the  membership  of  our  Churches.  In  a  few  cases  our  min- 
istry has  contained  men  of  the  Jewish  race,  faithful  and  de- 
voted.  These  facts  illustrate  the  possibilities  of  the  work. 

The  need  of  a  more  aggressive  organization  of  the  Church's 
educational  forces  had  long  been  felt.  The  cause  of  education 
had  grown  mostly  as  nature  grows,  and  one  wonders  that  it 
should  have  been  so  long  left  to  the  law  of  selection  and  sur- 
vival. Nature  makes  species  and  kinds,  but  intensive  culture 
methods  and  forcing  plants  alone  can  superinduce  exceptional 
variety  and  fecundity.  Of  all  moral  concerns,  the  work  of 
education  most  needs  method  and  intensive  treatment.  It  is 
astonishing,  in  view  of  this  principle,  that  up  to  this  time  few 
of  the  Churches  had  an  organized  central  bureau  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  their  schools.  The  General  Conference  of  1890 
ordered  the  formation  of  a  Board  of  Education,  but  almost  im- 
mediately rescinded  the  action.  The  cause,  therefore,  went 
over  for  a  quadrennium.  It  is  doubly  difficult  to  account  for 
this  particular  reaction,  so  clear  was  the  need  of  the  thing 
denied.  In  spite  of  the  lack  of  responsible  oversight,  however, 
the  schools  of  the  Connection  prospered.  In  Virginia  the  Ran- 
dolph-Macon system  grew  into  splendid  proportions,  binding 
the  different  sections  of  the  Old  Dominion  together  with  a 
correlation  of  high-grade  institutions  and  academic  adjuncts. 
Trinity  College  in  North  Carolina,  Emory  College  (now  Emory 
University  )  in  Georgia,  and  the  splendid  new  foundation  in 
Mississippi,  Millsaps  College,  particularly  went  to  the  front 
of  American  schools  of  the  first  class.  A  number  of  other  male 
and  some  female  colleges  also  added  greatly  to  their  equip- 
ments and  endowments.  Wesley  an  Female  College,  Macon, 
Ga.,  became  the  recipient  of  several  large  donations.  An  ideal 
prosperity  was  being  prophesied,  but  it  was  the  eve  before  the 
day  of  those  large  "foundations"  which  disparaged  denomina- 
tional schools  by  their  discriminations  in  favor  of  State  and 
nonreligious  education.  The  struggle  since  has  been  one  of 
more  than  outside  inequalities.  It  has  been  a  test  of  the  life 
and  meaning  of  religion  as  the  base  of  true  culture.* 

*See  table,  "Colleges  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,"  in 
Appendix,  which  gives  in  figures  the  history  of  higher  education  in  the 
Church  since  the  beginning. 


Counectional  Board  of  Trustees. 


XI 


The  Church  has  always  been  at  a  disadvantage  in  every  field 
of  secular  contention.  Not  only  has  it  had  constantly  to  re- 
sist materialism,  but  it  has  met  no  end  of  difficulties  in  the 
technicalities  of  law  and  administration,  often  lightly  con- 
strued against  its  interests.  Frequently  it  has  permitted 
titles  to  lapse  or  rights  to  go  by  default  because  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  maintaining  legal  issues  or  because  of  the  unseemli- 
ness of  its  doing  so,  even  when  justice  was  apparent.  To  meet 
the  legal  necessities  of  ownership  and  to  maintain  a  central 
attorneyship  of  title  and  record  and  to  hold  its  funds  and  be- 
quests, the  creation  of  a  connectional  legal  entity  was  needed. 
The  General  Conference  of  1890,  therefore,  directed  that  "there 
shall  be  located  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  an  incorporated  Board 
of  Trustees  under  the  name,  style,  and  title  of  the  'Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,'  composed 
of  eight  members,  four  ministers  and  four  laymen,  appointed 
by  the  General  Conference."  In  pursuance  of  this  action,  R. 
K.  Brown,  E.  W.  Cole,  J.  L.  Farkes,  D.  C.  Scales,  J.  S.  Frazer, 
J.  J.  Tigert,  T.  M.  Finney,  Anson  West,  and  Samuel  Cupples 
were  appointed.  They  applied  to  the  State  of  Tennessee  for  a 
charter  of  incorporation  "to  hold  in  trust  for  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  any  and  all  donations,  bequests,  de- 
vises, legacies,  grants  of  land,  personal  property,  or  funds  in 
trust,  etc.,  and  to  exercise  such  other  and  like  power  as  the 
State  has  given  to  such  corporations  by  virtue  of  the  acts  of 
the  same." 

The  general  powers  of  this  Board  of  Trustees  are :  To  sue  and 
be  sued  in  its  corporate  name ;  to  have  and  use  a  common  seal ; 
to  purchase  and  to  hold  or  receive  by  gift,  bequest,  or  devise, 
in  addition  to  the  personal  property  owned  by  the  corporation, 
real  estate  necessary  for  the  transaction  of  the  corporate  busi- 
ness, and  also  to  purchase  and  accept  any  real  estate  in  pay- 
ment of  any  debt  due  to  the  corporation  and  sell  the  same; 
to  establish  by-laws  and  make  all  rules  and  regulations  not 
inconsistent  with  the  laws  and  constitution;  and  to  appoint 
such  subordinate  officers  and  agents,  in  addition  to  a  president, 
secretary,  and  treasurer,  as  the  corporation  may  require,  desig- 
nate the  name  of  the  office  and  fix  the  compensation  of  the  of- 
ficers. 

6 


82 


History  of  Methodism. 


Since  this  body  is  of  such  importance  to  the  fiscal  affairs 
and  material  well-being  of  the  Connection,  it  has  been  thought 
well  to  exhibit  here  the  rules  under  which  it  acts.  It  was 
authorized  by  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  in  1915  under  the 
following  act — viz. : 

An  act  to  authorize  eleemosynary  and  educational  corporations  to 
amend  their  charters  so  as  to  vest  in  the  governing  body  of  a  religious 
society  or  denomination  the  power  to  name  the  directors  or  trustees 
of  such  corporation,  increase  or  diminish  their  number,  fix  their  terms 
of  office,  fill  and  provide  for  filling  any  vacancies  occurring.  Said  di- 
rectors or  trustees  to  be  thereafter  governed  by  the  laws,  rules,  regula- 
tions, and  usages  of  such  religious  society  or  denomination  so  far  as 
the  same  are  consistent  with  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee  and  of  these  United  States. 

The  security  of  the  Church's  fiduciary  trusts  under  this 
regulation  can  be  seen.  A  sad  experience  in  the  past  has 
taught  the  leaders  of  the  Connection  a  lesson  in  title-making, 
in  the  application  of  which  they  have  sought  the  aid  of  State 
legislation.  The  General  Conference  of  1906  increased  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  ten,  equally  represented 
by  ministers  and  laymen. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  it  has  per- 
formed many  of  its  prescribed  functions,  receiving  and  admin- 
istering bequests  for  missions,  for  building  churches,  for  educa- 
tional purposes,  and  for  the  benefit  of  Conference  claimants. 
Funds  are  invested  and  managed  for  several  of  the  Annual 
Conferences,  for  the  personal  benefit  of  superannuated  preach- 
ers and  the  widows  and  children  of  deceased  ministers.  By  far 
the  most  important  duty  left  with  this  Board  has  been  that 
of  raising  a  capital  fund  of  five  millions  of  dollars  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  superannuated  preachers  and  their  families,  known 
as  the  Superannuate  Endowment  Fund.  Tin's  fund  was  or- 
ganized in  1902,  and  the  Board  of  Trustees  was  made  its  cus- 
todian, with  instruction  to  employ  such  agencies  for  its  in- 
crease as  might  seem  desirable.  Rev.  A.  F.  Watkins,  D.D.,  of 
the  Mississippi  Conference,  was  named  as  the  first  agent  of 
this  fund.  After  several  years  of  service,  he  was  succeeded  by 
the  Rev.  J.  R.  Stewart,  who  as  Secrotnry-Treasurer  of  the 
Board  is  acting  agent  for  this  fund.    Interest  in  the  growth 


Fraternal  Addresses — Dr.  D.  J.  Waller.  83 


of  this  fund  is  increasing.  The  source  of  its  regular  and  de- 
pendable income  is  a  uniform  assessment  levied  on  the  Annual 
Conferences.  Many  bequests  have  also  been  made  to  it,  and 
a  goodly  number  of  annuity  bonds  have  been  sold.  J  Is  com- 
pletion is  one  of  the  comforting  outlooks  of  Methodism. 

The  fraternal  exchanges  of  the  quadrennium  which  was  now 
closing  were  particularly  happy.  To  the  General  Conference 
of  1800  Dr.  Steel  and  Bishop  Galloway  made  report  of  their 
visits  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada,  respectively.  Dr.  D.  J.  Waller  was  the  fra- 
ternal representative  from  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  Eng- 
land. His  visit  was  noteworthy  in  that  it  was  the  first  which 
had  been  paid  the  Church  in  the  South  from  the  Methodists 
of  the  Motherland.  To  this  fact  Dr.  Waller  referred  in  the  fol- 
lov/ing  excerpt  from  his  address : 

The  British  Conference  has  appointed  me  as  its  first  representa- 
tive to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  .  .  .  This  delegation  has  enabled  me  to  satisfy  a  long-cher- 
ished desire  to  visit  your  great  country  and  to  see  something  of  Ameri- 
can Methodism,  which  in  point  of  numbers  has  far  outgrown  the  original 
British  stock.  It  has  also  afforded  me  the  pleasure  of  seeing  this 
great  representative  gathering  of  Southern  Methodism  and  of  assuring 
you  in  the  name  of  your  brethren  in  England  that  they  rejoice  exceed- 
ingly in  your  growth  and  prosperity.  From  what  I  have  seen  since  I 
landed  on  your  shores  and  from  what  I  now  see  before  me,  I  feel  that 
I  belong  to  a  greater  Methodism. 

The  address  was  impressive  throughout.  It  summarized  in 
an  engaging  and  instructive  way  the  whole  story  of  the  English 
Wesleyan  Forward  Movement,  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chap- 
ter, and  was  replete  with  sentiments  of  fraternity  and  catho- 
licity.  The  speaker  closed  with  this  eloquent  peroration : 

As  I  crossed  the  Atlantic  we  had  a  day  of  storm  and  rain;  but  toward 
the  evening  the  sun  broke  forth,  and  on  the  receding  showers  there  ap- 
peared a  magnificent  rainbow.  There  in  one  unbroken  span  it  stretched 
from  the  uttermost  verge  of  one  horizon  to  the  other.  I  thought  of 
what  a  beautiful  symbol  that  was  of  the  Church  of  the  living  God.  The 
colors  of  that  glorious  arch  of  God  are  distinct,  varied,  beautifully 
blended,  and  yet  one.  The  different  colors  are  all  the  refraction  in  the 
raindrops  of  the  same  rays  of  light.  As  I  looked  upon  that  "covenant 
bow,"  which  no  earthquake  can  shatter  or  storm  cloud  destroy,  the 
words  of  the  Apocrypha  came  into  my  mind:  "When  thou  seest  the 


84 


History  of  Methodism. 


rainbow,  bless  him  that  made  it;  very  beautiful  it  is  to  look  upon,  and 
the  hands  of  the  Almighty  have  bended  it."  Nothing  is  of  more  im- 
portance to  Christian  civilization  than  that  the  bow  of  peace  should 
always  stretch  across  the  American  and  English  nations,  and  nothing 
will  tend  more  to  secure  this  than  a  fraternal  relationship  between  the 
great  Methodist  Churches. 

Rev.  F.  M.  Bristol,  D.D.,  later  elected  bishop,  and  Hon. 
Robert  E.  Pattison,  ex-Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  spoke  the 
greetings  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Their  cordial 
and  fervent  salutations  stirred  all  hearts  and  were  responded 
to  by  Bishop  Keener  in  a  spirited  and  ready  style,  of  which  he 
was  master.  The  character  of  Dr.  Bristol's  address  may  be 
judged  from  the  following  extract  : 

We  have  watched  your  triumphant  advances  against  the  strongholds 
of  sin  and  idolatry  and  the  world's  unrighteousness,  not  with  the  eye  of 
envy,  but  as  Lafayette  at  Yorktown  watched  the  gallant  assault  of  Ham- 
ilton upon  the  works  of  the  enemy,  with  an  eye  of  grateful  admiration. 
"We  hail  your  achievements  with  thanksgiving  and  pray  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  you  and  your  great  work  in  multiplied  grace  and  power. 
We  felicitate  ourselves  that  this  joy  in  the  success  of  Methodism  is 
mutual,  and  our  congratulations  are  reciprocal.  As  a  people  and  a 
ministry  that  glory  in  nothing  but  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
we  have  reached  "the  purer  air  and  the  broader  view"  where  we  can 
join  each  other  to  hail  the  victories  of  the  cross;  and  we  are  ever  ready 
to  raise  the  holy  paean,  whoever  may  be  the  honored  head  to  lead  the 
standard  on  and  win  another  field  for  God  and  righteousness. 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  was  represented  by  the 
Rev.  S.  G.  Stone,  D.D.  Greetings  were  also  sent  by  the  Col- 
ored Methodist  Church  and  from  the  Southern  Baptist  Gen- 
eral Convention.  In  view  of  this  last  delegation,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  say  that  the  old  spirit  of  controversy,  so  long  a  bar 
to  perfect  fellowship  between  the  immersionists  and  their 
pedobaptist  brethren  in  the  South,  had  by  this  time  so  effec- 
tually declined  that  all  were  being  brought  together  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  unity  and  evangelization. 

Although  the  Episcopal  College  had  been  weakened  by  the 
death  of  but  one  of  its  members,  Bishop  H.  X.  McTyeire,  ii 
was  voted  to  elect  two  additional  General  Superintendents. 
The  balloting  resulted  in  the  selection  of  Dr.  At  liens  G.  Hay- 
good,  of  Georgia,  and  Dr.  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  editor  of  the  Chris- 


Episcopal  Residence — Elections — Death  of  Wesley.  85 


tian  Advocate.  By  vote  of  the  Conference,  one  of  the  bishops 
was  requested  to  reside  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  This  residence 
was  chosen  by  Bishop  Haygood.  A  memorial  requesting  that 
the  bishops  be  made  ex  officio  members  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence had  been  presented,  but  was  nonconcurred  in  on  constitu- 
tional and  expediential  grounds — namely,  that  it  would  admit 
them  to  both  legislative  and  judicial  functions. 

The  list  of  connectional  elections  for  the  quadrennium  was 
returned  as  follows:  Editor  Christian  Advocate,  E.  E.  Hoss; 
Assistant  Editor,  E.  M.  Bounds;  Book  Editor,  W.  P.  Harri- 
son; Book  Agent,  J.  D.  Barbee;  Assistant,  D.  M.  Smith;  Mis- 
sionary Secretaries,  I.  G.  John,  A.  Coke  Smith,  and  H.  C.  Mor- 
rison; Church  Extension  Secretary,  David  Morton;  Assistant 
Secretary,  J.  C.  Morris;  Sunday  School  Editor,  W.  G.  E.  Cun- 
nyngham. 

When  John  Wesley  died,  on  March  2,  1791,  he  left  behind 
him  little  else  except  the  memory  of  his  own  personality  and 
the  Methodist  Church;  but  the  world  then  had  no  such  view 
of  either  as  it  had  gained  a  hundred  years  later.  More  quietly 
observed  than  any  of  the  other  recurring  memorials  of  this 
time,  throughout  the  Methodist  world  the  centenary  of  Wes- 
ley's death  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  reverent  study  of  his 
character,  his  teachings,  and  his  work.  Church  newspapers 
printed  lengthy  sketches  of  his  life  and  labors  and  repledged 
the  people  called  Methodists  to  renewed  consecration  of  life 
and  substance  "on  the  old  Methodist  plan";  many  Churches 
appropriately  observed  the  occasion  in  ways  'both  simple  and 
solemn,  meant  to  act  directly  upon  the  religious  experience  of 
the  congregations — a  means  of  remembrance  which  all  felt  their 
spiritual  father  would  have  approved.  A  motto  of  this  me- 
morial everywhere  was  the  thousand-times-repeated  Wesley  an- 
ism :  "Our  people  die  well." 

One  of  the  complementing  acts  of  the  Southern  General  Con- 
ference of  1800  was  to  provide  for  representation  in  the  second 
Ecumenical  Conference  to  meet  in  Washington  City  October 
7,  1891.  This  gathering,  coming  in  turn  to  the  Western  conti- 
nent, awakened  the  greatest  interest  throughout  the  Connec- 
tions in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  committee  on 
program,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  ar- 


86 


History  of  Methodism. 


ranged  a  catena  of  topics  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  and  needs 
of  the  times.  The  divisional  topics  were:  "Ecumenical  Meth- 
odism," "The  Christian  Church— Its  Essential  Union  and  Gen- 
uine Catholicity/'  "The  Church  and  Scientific  Thought,"  "The 
Church  and  Her  Agencies,"  "Education,"  "Temperance,"  "So- 
cial Problems,"  "Missions,"  "War  and  Peace,"  "The  Church 
and  Public  Morality,"  "The  Outlook."  As  in  the  case  of  the 
first  Ecumenical,  ten  years  before,  arrangements  had  been 
made  for  gathering  the  addresses,  papers,  and  discussions,  and 
putting  them  into  the  form  of  a  permanent  volume. 

The  official  list  of  allotments  showed  the  following  numbers 
in  delegations — viz.,  for  the  Eastern,  or  European,  Section,  184 
delegates,  distributed  as  follows :  To  the  Wesley  an  Church,  77 ; 
Irish  Methodist,  12 ;  Methodist  New  Connection,  12 ;  Primitive 
Methodist,  31;  Bible  Christian,  10;  United  Free  Church,  31; 
French  Methodist,  2;  Australian  Methodist,  10;  Independent 
Methodist,  2 ;  Wesleyan  Keform  Union,  4 ;  South  African  Meth- 
odist, 1;  and  West  Indian  Methodist,  2.  To  the  Western  Sec- 
tion were  assigned  311  delegates,  distributed  as  follows :  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  12G;  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  64 ;  Methodist  Church  in  Canada,  24 ;  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  19;  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion,  15; 
Colored  Methodist  Episcopal,  9;  Methodist  Protestant,  9; 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  7;  American  Wesleyan  Church,  6; 
Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal,  3 ;  African  Union,  Meth- 
odist Protestant,  3;  Free  Methodist,  3;  Congregational  Meth- 
odist, 3;  Primitive  Methodist,  3;  British  Methodist  Episcopal, 
3;  Independent  Methodist,  2;  and  United  Brethren  in  Christ 
(old  constitution),  2. 

The  session  was  formally  opened  under  the  presidency  of 
Bishop  Thomas  Bowman,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ; 
and  Bishop  John  C.  Keener,  of  the  Southern  Church,  led  in  the 
opening  prayer,  the  great  audience  joining  in  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
It  is  seldom  that  so  impressive  an  occasion  has  come  to  the  peo- 
ple of  any  fellowship.  The  power  of  unity  was  consciously 
felt.  Bishop  Wayman,  of  the  African  Church,  led  the  assembly 
in  repeating  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

The  Rev.  William  Arthur,  ex-President  of  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference, had  been  appointed  to  deliver  the  opening  sermon. 


Dr.  Arthur's  Sermon — President  Harrison's  Address.  87 


The  fitness  of  this  selection  was  recognized  on  all  hands.  Dr. 
Arthur,  then  nearing  the  end  of  his  seventy-third  year  and  not 
only  honored  as  the  patriarch  of  the  Ecumenical  Church,  but 
as  the  author  of  "The  Tongue  of  Fire,"  was  more  widely  known 
than  any  of  his  contemporaries.  His  learning  and  mastery 
were  surpassed  only  by  his  piety  and  self -dedication.  At  this 
time  he  was  spoken  of  as  being  the  greatest  living  master  of 
the  English  tongue.  That  was  much  to  claim  in  an  age  which 
had  been  led  by  the.  forensic  and  pulpit  masteries  of  William 
E.  Gladstone,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  William  Frederick 
Farrar.  Dr.  Arthur  was  present  at  the  Conference,  but  was 
unable  to  deliver  his  discourse,  the  enfeebled  condition  of  his 
voice  being  unequal  to  the  task.  The  sermon  was,  therefore, 
read  by  his  colleague,  Dr.  T.  Bowman  Stephenson,  the  Presi- 
dent incumbent  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference.  The  reader's 
voice  was  clear  and  strong,  and  the  effect  produced  by  the  ser- 
mon was  profound  and  lasting. 

During  its  sittings  the  Conference  was  the  recipient  of  many 
courtesies  from  the  officials  of  the  American  government  and 
the  diplomats  of  English-speaking  countries,  who  cordially  rec- 
ognized the  significance  of  its  presence.  The  Hon.  Benjamin 
Harrison,  President  of  the  United  States,  was  particularly 
gracious  in  these  courtesies.  On  October  12  he  received  and  en- 
tertained the  delegates  at  the  White  House.  The  occasion  was 
marked  by  the  frank  and  informal  personal  greetings  of  the 
President  and  his  wife  and  was  conducted  throughout  with 
democratic  simplicity.  On  October  17  the  President,  unat- 
tended, visited  the  session  of  the  Conference  and  was  formally 
introduced.  It  was  a  happy  coincidence  that  at  that  juncture 
the  body  was  discussing  the  topic  of  "International  Arbitra- 
tion." Being  asked  to  speak,  Mr.  Harrison  addressed  himself 
to  the  point  of  the  program  and  in  a  manner  which  both  pleased 
and  instructed  the  Conference  discussed  the  subject  in  its  high- 
er ethical  and  religious  relations.  These  incidents  gave  the 
English  delegates  a  new  view  of  American  politics  and  also  of 
American  social  and  official  customs. 

It  was  foreseen  that,  even  more  than  its  predecessor  of  1881, 
this  Conference  was  to  affect  the  general  spirit  and  plans  of 
the  people  called  Methodists.    A  Pastoral  Address,  meant  to 


88 


History  of  Methodism. 


conserve  the  results  of  the  Conference,  signed  by  the  presi- 
dents of  the  several  sessions  and  the  secretaries,  was  therefore 
sent  out  to  the  Church  in  all  lands.  The  following  admirable 
summary  of  this  address  is  found  in  Curtiss's  "Manual  of  Meth- 
odist History",: 

It  recognized  the  substantial  unity  which  exists  among  the  various 
Methodist  Churches.  "The  time  has  come  for  a  closer  cooperation  of 
these  Churches,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  which  shall  prevent  waste  of 
power  and  unhallowed  rivalry."  It  eloquently  pleaded  for  the  salvation 
of  the  millions  who  have  a  hard  lot  in  life;  the  bringing  of  them  into 
sympathy  with  the  Church;  the  purity  of  woman;  care  for  the  Chris- 
tian Sabbath,  the  sanctity  of  home,  and  the  uprooting  and  extermina- 
tion of  intemperance,  "the  fruitful  mother  of  a  brood  of  evils";  the  dis- 
countenancing of  betting  and  gambling;  reckless  speculation  in  busi- 
ness, unfair  competition,  and  for  courts  of  arbitration  to  take  the 
place  of  "aggressive  war."  It  gave  wise  counsel  concerning  economy 
of  Methodist  resources;  .  .  .  care  for  the  children  of  the  Church, 
the  Epworth  League,  the  education  of  the  young  people,  and  the  foreign 
missions  of  all  the  Connections.  The  Church  was  recommended  to  use 
"the  pulpit  and  the  press,  the  school  and  the  university,  science  and 
art,  social  influence  and  the  ballot  box." 

Two  outstanding  events  in  the  Southern  Church  belong  to 
the  year  immediately  following  the  close  of  the  second  Ecu- 
menical Conference.  One  of  these  was  the  bequest  of  a  mil- 
lion dollars  made  by  Mr.  Robert  A.  Barnes,  of  St.  Louis,  for 
the  erection  in  that  city  of  a  hospital  to  be  administered  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  The 
other  was  the  founding  and  opening  of  the  Scarritt  Bible  and 
Training  School,  at  Kansas  City,  largely  through  the  liberality 
of  Rev.  Nathan  Scarritt,  a  retired  minister  of  the  Connection. 
Mr.  Barnes,  though  not  a  Methodist,  had  long  been  a  liberal 
supporter  of  the  causes  of  Methodism.  His  reason  for  making 
the  Church  the  beneficiary  and  guardian  of  his  bequest  was 
strikingly  expressed.  "A  person,"  he  said,  "ought  to  invest 
his  money  for  doing  good  as  he  invests  it  in  his  business,  where 
it  will  bring  the  largest  returns.  While  the  Methodist  Church 
is  one  of  the  largest  Protestant  denominations,  it  is  one  of  the 
poorest  financially;  yet  it  does  more  work  among  the  poor  than 
any  of  the  others,  so  I  think  my  fortune  will  do  most  good  with 
it.*    The  gift  of  Dp.  Scarritt  has  perhaps  returned  more  sub- 


Scarritt  Bible  School — ''Holiness"  Question. 


89 


stantial  results  to  the  cause  of  Christ  as  represented  by  women 
than  almost  any  similar  investment  made  in  our  country.  J)r. 
Scarritt  was  a  man  of  remarkable  power  in  the  pulpit  and  a 
natural  leader.  He  died  in  May,  1890,  near  the  close  of  the 
General  Conference  of  that  year,  of  which  body  he  was  a  mem- 
ber in  the  lay  delegation  from  the  Southwest  Missouri  Annual 
Conference. 

The  so-called  "Holiness"  question,  a  controversy  which  has 
its  roots  in  the  doctrines  and  experience  of  Wesleyanism,  came 
to  a  point  of  unusual  development  about  the  middle  years  of 
this  quadrennium.  Mr.  Wesley  taught  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian perfection — that  is,  the  ripening  of  Christian  motive  and 
experience  into  the  measure  of  the  "perfect  man  in  Christ 
Jesus."  He  urged  this  attainment  as  a  privilege  and  duty  and 
as  being  necessarily  deducible  from  the  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament ;  but  when  it  came  to  dealing  with  the  psychic  and 
subjective  aspects  of  the  experience,  he  found  himself  oscillat- 
ing between  conclusions  varying  with  the  different  stages  of 
his  own  inquiry.  It  is  true  also  that  he  matured  his  more  per- 
sonal and  exceptional  theological  views  slowly,  working  from 
stage  to  stage,  until  his  vision  was  cloudless  and  complete.  It 
seems  certain  that,  while  he  taught  both  the  doctrine  of  entire 
sanctification  and  Christian  perfection  as  goals  of  the  regener- 
ate life  and  that  he  also  taught  this  attainment  both  through 
dynamic  changes  wrought  of  the  Spirit  and  through  stages  of 
growth,  he  did  not  for  himself  set  down  any  record  of  absolute 
attainment.  Also  in  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of  "inbred"  or 
"remaining"  sin,  which  is  determinative  of  the  "theory"  of 
sanctification,  he  has  left  to  his  spiritual  followers  the  psychic 
difficulties  which  he  himself  encountered  and  which,  in  fact, 
are  to  be  accepted  as  the  common  heritage  of  those  who  attain 
through  faith.  No  two  experiences  can  ever  be  exactly  the 
same  or  be  expressed  in  identical  terms.  The  vast  majority  of 
Methodists  have  generally  accepted  this  as  a  rule  to  guide  them 
in  their  relations  to  this  great  matter.  But  from  time  to  time 
there  have  been  formed  groups,  sometimes  of  the  best  and  most 
spiritual,  who  have  adopted  the  view  that  there  is  a  "second 
cleansing,"  distinct  and  dissimilar  from  regeneration  and  ex- 
perimentally necessary  to  Christian  character.    In  this  pre- 


90 


History  of  Methodism. 


supposition  is  grounded  the  teaching,  generally  so  stated,  that 
regeneration  removes  the  guilt  of  sin  from  the  life,  but  does 
not  cleanse  the  heart  of  its  pollution.  At  the  high  tide  of  the 
"Holiness"  movement  this  doctrine  had  permeated  several  of 
the  Annual  Conferences.  In  some  of  these  had  been  formed 
associations,  distinct  from  the  general  fellowship,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  that  view.  It  was  not  denied  that  in  many,  perhaps 
in  most,  instances  the  teachers  of  this  view  and  their  adherents 
were  not  only  zealous,  but  quite  sincere;  but  the  propaganda 
was  none  the  less  divisive  and  disturbing.  Much  good  came  of 
the  agitation  through  the  inquiries  which  it  excited  into  fun- 
damental matters  of  belief  and  experience;  but  in  the  subsid- 
ence, which  was  inevitable,  it  left  many  discouraged,  some 
embittered,  and  caused  not  a  few  to  walk  in  the  paths  of  other 
fellowships.  It  is  worth  while,  however,  to  consider  that  such 
by-results  come  of  all  agitations  in  which  truth  and  righteous- 
ness are  involved.  This  movement  was  symptomatic  of  an  un- 
rest and  a  deeper  inquiry  in  the  hearts  of  the  men  and  women 
of  all  Churches,  and  especially  those  of  the  Wesleyan  family. 
Beyond  a  doubt  it  served  a  purpose  in  calling  attention,  and 
that  in  terms  of  life,  to  the  fact  that  holiness  attained  through 
sanctification  and  realized  in  life  is  not  only  a  doctrine  of 
Methodism,  but  is  the  doctrine  which  explains  its  presence 
amongst  the  Churches  of  Christendom. 

The  bishops  in  their  Pastoral  Address  for  1894  (which  we 
may  here  anticipate)  thus  referred  to  this  agitation,  which  had 
perhaps  then  reached  its  culmination : 

The  privilege  of  believers  to  attain  unto  the  state  of  entire  sanctifica- 
tion, or  perfect  love,  and  to  abide  therein  is  a  well-known  teaching  of 
Methodism.  Witnesses  to  this  experience  have  never  been  wanting  in 
our  Church,  though  few  in  comparison  with  the  whole  membership. 
Among  them  have  been  men  and  women  of  beautiful  consistency  and 
seraphic  ardor,  jewels  of  the  Church.  Let  the  doctrine  still  be  pro- 
claimed and  the  experience  still  be  testified.  But  there  has  sprung  up 
among  us  a  party  with  "holiness"  as  a  watchword;  they  have  holiness 
associations,  holiness  meetings,  holiness  preachers,  holiness  evangelists, 
and  holiness  property.  Religious  experience  is  represented  as  if  it  con- 
sists of  only  two  steps,  the  first  step  out  of  condemnation  into  peace 
and  the  next  step  into  Christian  perfection.  The  effect  is  to  disparage 
the  new  birth  and  all  stages  of  spiritual  growth  from  the  blade  to  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear,  if  there  be  not  professed  perfect  holiness.  Such 


Bishops'  Address  on  Holiness. 


91 


Scriptural  terms  as  "saints,"  "sanctified,"  "pure  in  heart,"  "holy,"  "dead 
to  sin,"  "filled  with  the  Spirit,"  and  "made  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,"  are  restricted  to  the  few  who  have 
reached  the  height  of  perfect  purity  and  love  and  improperly  denied  to 
the  body  of  believers;  and  not  only  to  those  who  are  new  or  weak  in 
the  faith,  but  also  to  mature  Christians  who  by  walking  with  God  in 
blessed  fellowship  and  by  patient  continuance  in  well-doing,  ever  increas- 
ing in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  being  fruitful  in  every  good  work, 
adorn  the  doctrines  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things,  and  are  pillars  in 
the  Church.  We  do  not  question  the  sincerity  and  zeal  of  these  breth- 
ren; we  desire  the  Church  to  profit  by  their  earnest  preaching  and 
godly  example;  but  we  deplore  their  teaching  and  methods  in  so  far 
as  they  claim  a  monopoly  of  the  experience,  practice,  and  advocacy 
of  holiness  and  separate  themselves  from  the  body  of  ministers  and 
disciples. 

As  time  passes  it  becomes  increasingly  apparent  that  the 
generally  sincere  spirit  of  the  Church  concerning  all  its  doc- 
trines, and  that  of  holiness  in  particular,  is  a  guarantee  of  fu- 
ture faithfulness  and  fraternal  understanding.  After  many 
years  of  controversy,  the  defenders  of  different  theories  of  Chris- 
tian perfection  see  themselves  not  so  far  apart  as  they  thought 
concerning  the  central  truth,  holiness  itself;  and  the  hope  is 
strong  that  the  old  contest  may  not  recur,  but  that  the  "love 
which  casteth  out  fear"  may  control  throughout. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


A  General  Conference  in  the  West — The  Organic  Law — Revivals  and 
Missions — World's  Fair — First  Epworth  League  Convention — Assem- 
blies— Death  Roll — Canada  Methodism — In  the  Wesleyan  Connection 
— Bishop  Galloway,  First  Delegate  to  the  Conference  in  England — 
Legal  Hundred— 1890-1893  (Concluded). 

A  N  evidence  that  the  geographical  center  of  Methodism, 


fx  with  that  of  the  general  life  of  the  republic,  was  moving 
westward  was  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  General  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica for  1802  was  held  in  Omaha,  Nebr.  When  in  1830  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  undivided  Church  met  in  Cincinnati,  it 
was  in  recognition  of  the  existence  of  a  newly  created  Western 
empire.  A  "West"  then  barely  dreamed  of  was  now  to  wel- 
come the  larger  representative  of  that  original,  and  yet  another 
"West" — that  of  the  ultimate  shore — was  a  dozen  year*  later 
to  be  host  of  the  same  body.  Thus  in  the  space  of  a  little  more 
than  one  hundred  years  Methodism  accomplished  its  official 
progress  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

At  the  sitting  in  Omaha  a  departure  was  taken  in  the  plan 
of  seating  the  two  orders  of  delegates.  The  motion  to  arrange 
the  sittings  of  the  lay  delegates  separate  from  the  ministers, 
but  under  the  same  presidency,  was  discussed  and  adopted.  It 
was  at  this  sitting  also  that  a  commission,  originated  in  1888, 
to  define  the  constitution  made  its  report.  To  this  subject 
reference  was  made  in  a  former  chapter.  Directions  had  been 
given  the  commission  to  report  "a  formal  definition  or  identi- 
fication of  the  organic  law  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  the  constitution  of  the  General  Conference."  The  com- 
mission brought  in  both  a  majority  and  a  minority  report. 
After  much  discussion,  indicating  great  divergence  of  judg- 
ment on  the  points  presented,  the  question  went  over  for  a 
quadrennium.  The  proposition  to  change  the  constitution  bo 
ns  to  make  women  eligible  to  scats  in  the  General  Conference 
had  also  been  dealt  with  during  the  four  previous  years.  A 
vote  on  the  proposed  amendment  making  women  eligible  to 
membership  had  been  taken  in  the  Annual  Conferences,  A 


(92) 


"A  Constitutional  History" — Address — Elections.  93 


favorable  majority  had  been  returned,  but  not  the  necessary 
three-fourths.  With  other  demands  for  organic  changes,  the 
question  of  eligibility  also  went  over. 

An  interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  constitutional 
questions  arising  at  tins  time  was  the  presence  at  the  Confer- 
ence of  the  Rev.  John  J.  Tigert,  LL.D.,  fraternal  messenger 
from  the  Southern  Church.  Dr.  Tigert,  afterwards  bishop,  was 
an  authority  on  Methodist  constitution  and  was  the  author  of 
"A  Constitutional  History  of  American  Episcopal  Methodism," 
perhaps  the  most  exhaustive  work  which  has  ever  been  written 
on  that  subject.  It  has  often  been  referred  to  as  authoritative 
in  the  deliberative  bodies  of  both  Churches. 

The  bishops  in  their  address  at  Omaha  spoke  of  lessening 
emotion  in  the  experience  of  the  people,  but  expressed  the  be- 
lief that  there  had  come  instead  an  "increase  of  religious  sta- 
bility." Revivals  were  still  maintained.  The  increase  in  mem- 
bership for  the  four  years  wras  442,000,  carrying  the  aggregate 
of  the  Church  membership  to  more  than  two  and  a  quarter 
million.  The  benevolences  of  the  Connection  had  increased 
from  about  six  million  dollars  to  eight  million  dollars.  The 
net  capital  of  the  two  Book  Concerns  went  well  beyond  three 
million  dollars,  while  the  sales  for  the  quadrennium  went  be- 
yond seven  million. 

Bishops  Thoburn  and  Taylor  thrilled  the  General  Confer- 
ence with  their  accounts  of  the  progress  of  the  gospel  in  India 
and  Africa,  their  respective  episcopal  districts.  Bishop  Tho- 
burn reported  55,000  members  in  the  Indian  Mission  Sunday 
schools  and  1,039  day  schools  with  29,083  pupils,  of  whom 
more  than  eleven  thousand  were  Christians.  At  that  time  the 
converts  in  Methodist  missions  in  India  were  aggregating 
nearly  ten  thousand  yearly. 

In  the  connectional  elections  for  the  quadrennium  Sandford 
Hunt  and  Homer  Eaton  were  elected  Publishing  Agents ;  J.  W. 
Mendenhall,  Editor  Methodist  Review;  J.  M.  Buckley,  Editor 
Christian  Advocate;  C.  C.  McCabe,  J.  O.  Peck,  and  A.  B.  Leon- 
ard, Missionary  Secretaries ;  and  J.  F.  Berry,  Editor  Epworth 
Herald. 

The  year  1893  was  distinguished  in  the  country's  history  by 
the  opening  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago. 


94 


History  of  Methodism. 


This  was  in  commemoration  of  the  four-hundredth  anniver- 
sary of  the  discovery  of  America.  It  marked  the  high  tide  of 
American  prosperity  and  brought  to  a  new  expression  na- 
tional unity  and  patriotism.  The  unique  feature  of  the  pro- 
gram of  the  great  celebration  was  the  World's  Parliament  of 
Religions,  in  which  representatives  of  all  the  principal  re- 
ligions of  the  world  participated.  The  immediate  or  remote 
utility  of  this  meeting  has  been  seriously  questioned,  but  the 
interest  which  conceived  and  promoted  it  was  characteristic 
of  the  age.  The  parliament  was,  indeed,  the  blossom  of  the 
century's  plant  of  electic  ideals  in  religious  thought.  Per- 
haps it  was  through  such  processes  as  this  parliament  repre- 
sented that  the  thought  of  Christendom  was  to  mature  the 
conclusion  that  "there  are  comparative  religions,  but  Chris- 
tianity is  not  one  of  them."  It  is  certain  that  Christianity  did 
not  suffer  in  the  effulgence  of  comparative  exposition  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  issues  in  this  parliament.  Not  a  few  Meth- 
odist leaders  of  the  time  were  on  the  program  and  took  part  in 
the  discussions. 

It  was  during  the  course  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  that 
the  first  of  those  huge  gatherings  of  the  Epworth  League  known 
as  International  Conventions,  or  Conferences,  was  held  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  October,  1803.  This  gathering  was  par- 
ticipated in  by  representatives  from  the  Epworth  Leagues  of 
the  Churches  North  and  South  and  of  Canada.  William  Mc- 
Kinley,  a  Methodist  layman  and  local  preacher,  then  Governor 
of  Ohio,  welcomed  the  thousands  of  delegates  in  an  address 
which  glowed  with  fervor  and  devotion.  This  simple,  loyal 
Christian  disciple  was  afterwards  elected  President  of  the 
United  States  and  was  assassinated  in  the  city  of  Buffalo  on 
the  day  of  a  great  civic  and  international  celebration.  This 
tragedy  occurred  almost  at  the  hour  of  the  opening  of  the 
third  Ecumenical  Conference  in  London  and  was  the  occasion 
of  an  expression  of  world  sorrow  and  sympathy. 

The  Epworth  Leagues  of  Methodism  were  afterwards  gath- 
ered in  other  international  conventions  more  largely  attended 
than  was  even  this.  Indeed,  for  ten  to  a  dozen  years  the  at- 
tendance continued  to  increase,  until,  as  at  the  convention  held 
at  Detroit  in  1001,  it  was  estimated  that  not  fewer  than  twenty 


League  "Conferences" — Assemblies — Deaths.  95 


thousand  representatives  were  in  attendance.  Conventions  of 
this  character,  besides  the  ones  at  Cleveland  and  Detroit,  were 
held  at  Chattanooga,  Toronto,  Indianapolis,  San  Francisco, 
Denver,  Seattle,  and  Buffalo.  The  age  of  such  conventions 
may  have  passed,  but  the  memories  of  the  unity  and  Christian 
zeal  engendered  by  these  are  like  ointment  poured  forth. 

Another  particular  manifestation  of  the  conventional  zeal 
and  constructiveness  of  the  Young  People's  Movement  in  its 
earlier  stages  was  the  "summer  assembly"  idea.  This  was  an 
adaptation  of  the  Chautauqua  scheme  for  combining  coopera- 
tive intellectual  improvement  and  religious  effort  and  study 
with  recreation  and  vacational  leisure.  The  plan  had  a  wide 
extension  and  very  perceptibly  affected  many  lines  of  Church 
work  in  which  young  people  were  engaged.  It  also  preserved 
some  of  the  uses  and  traditions  of  the  old-time  camp  meetings 
of  the  mid-continent  Asburian  days.  These  adjuncts  of  the 
movement  promise  to  abide. 

During  the  four  years  from  1890  to  1893,  inclusive,  the 
minutes  of  the  Southern  Annual  Conferences  reported  the 
death  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-one  ministers.  The  vast  ma- 
jority of  these  were,  of  course,  from  the  ranks  of  the  quiet 
messengers  of  the  evangel,  whose  fame  extended  no  farther 
than  the  limits  of  their  own  stations  or  circuits ;  but  a  few  be- 
longed to  the  larger  annals  of  Methodism  and  wrote  the  epis- 
tles of  their  lives  in  letters  too  large  to  be  dimmed  by  an  early 
passing  time.  Amongst  those  who  thus  found  place  in  the 
pantheon  of  Southern  Methodism  may  be  mentioned  the  fol- 
lowing— viz.:  Jesse  Boring,  North  Georgia;  Richard  Abbey, 
Mississippi;  Weyman  H.  Potter,  North  Georgia;  J.  W.  Lam- 
buth,  Japan  Mission ;  Thomas  N.  Ralston,  Kentucky ;  Leonidas 
Rosser,  Virginia;  Whitefoord  Smith,  South  Carolina;  Peter 

A.  Peterson,  Virginia;  Ephraim  E.  Wiley,  Holston;  Oliver  R. 
Blue,  Alabama;  Thomas  Stanford,  Northwest  Texas;  Joseph 

B.  West,  Tennessee ;  and  W.  H.  Anderson,  Kentucky. 

Jesse  Boring  was  particularly  distinguished  as  the  man  who 
"discovered  Bishop  McTyeire"  and  who  became  the  pioneer  of 
Protestant  missions  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  While  he  was  serv- 
ing as  presiding  elder  of  the  Mobile  (Ala.)  District  in  1846, 
an  undergraduate  preacher  twenty -two  years  of  age  was  serv- 


96 


History  of  Methodism. 


ing  as  pastor  of  the  Church  at  Demopolis,  a  charge  in  the  said 
district.  Upon  this  young  man  the  presiding  elder  placed  his 
finger  as  the  future  leader  of  Methodism.  That  young  man 
was  Holland  X.  McTyeire.  In  1849,  soon  after  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  California  and  following  the  first  migration  of 
Americans  to  those  shores,  Dr.  Boring  accepted  from  his 
Church  the  duty  of  opening  and  establishing  there  a  mission, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  Methodism  and  also  of  Protestant- 
ism on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Here  he  continued  to  labor  until 
1854,  "accomplishing  a  monumental  work."  Dr.  Boring  be- 
longed to  the  class  of  "self-educated"  men,  of  which  the  itiner- 
ancy of  Methodism  has  been  prolific.  Beginning  life  with  little 
training,  by  means  of  self-help  he  advanced  until  near  mid- 
dle age,  when  he  took  a  course  in  medicine  and  science  and 
came  "to  hold  a  high  place  among  distinguished  associates." 
Later  in  life  he  assisted  in  opening  the  missions  in  West  Texas, 
where,  as  the  record  recounts,  his  labors  were  attended  "with 
far-reaching  results."  After  this  he  returned  to  his  native 
State  of  Georgia,  where,  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Griffin,  At- 
lanta, La  Grange,  and  Augusta  Districts,  successively,  he  fin- 
ished his  active  ministry.  The  North  Georgia  Orphans'  Home, 
at  Decatur,  was  founded  chiefly  through  his  instrumentality. 
A  discreet  contemporary  appraised  him  as  "the  peer  of  any 
man  in  the  American  pulpit."   He  died  in  1890. 

John  E.  Edwards  was  the  pastor-preacher  preeminent  of 
his  day.  Born  in  North  Carolina  August  1,  1814,  and  joining 
the  Virginia  Conference  in  1835,  he  spent  fifty-six  years  in  the 
itinerancy,  dying  on  March  31,  1891,  in  the  seventy-seventh 
year  of  his  age.  His  pastorates,  almost  without  exception,  were 
in  the  larger  cities.  He  was  never  located,  never  served  as 
presiding  elder,  nor  ever  filled  any  secretarial  or  collateral  of- 
fice, but  was  always  a  pastor  only,  and  met  the  requirements  of 
that  office  as  few  have  done.  He  served  in  every  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Church  from  1858  to  1890,  being  the  head  of  his 
delegation  in  the  latter  year.  In  councils  he  was  first  amongst 
all.  His  preaching  was  marked  by  spiritual  unction  and  the 
output  of  cultivated  taste.  He  also  achieved  reputable  stand- 
ing as  an  author  and  was  well  known  as  a  contributor  to  the 
connection al  press. 


Abb  ey — Po  t  ter — Lam  bath. 


!)7 


Richard  Abbey  was  born  near  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  November 
1(>,  1805.  In  early  youth  he  went  to  the  State  of  Mississippi 
and  there  connected  himself  with  the  Methodist  Church,  enter- 
ing its  ministry  in  1841.  Belonging  also  in  the  class  of  "self- 
made"  men,  the  extent  and  quality  of  his  attainments  justified 
the  term  to  an  exceptional  degree.  In  mental  equipment  and 
philosophical  insight  he  was  scarcely  inferior  to  Herbert  Spen- 
cer and,  in  fact,  bore  a  facial  likeness  to  the  great  monist. 
In  another  land  and  under  more  favoring  conditions  his  ca- 
pacity for  philosophical  thinking  might  easily  have  brought 
him  renown.  In  his  book  "Diuturnity"  he  anticipated  not  a 
few  of  the  positions  reached  in  the  cosmological  philosophy  of 
later  decades.  In  "Ecclesiastical  Constitution,"  a  work  of  an- 
other sort,  he  displayed  his  familiarity  with  Church  history 
and  canon  law.  But  the  greatest  service  which  he  rendered 
the  Church  was  in  connection  with  its  publishing  interests. 
In  1858  he  was  named  Financial  Agent  of  the  Publishing  House 
at  Nashville.  During  the  days  of  war  he  remained  almost 
alone  as  the  protector  of  the  physical  property  of  the  House 
and  was  largely  instrumental  in  steering  it  through  the  finan- 
cial vortices  of  after  years.  His  death  occurred  at  Yazoo 
City,  Miss.,  October  23,  1891. 

Weyman  H.  Potter  was  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  born 
April  11,  1828.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  entered  the  itin- 
erancy, having  previously  graduated  with  the  highest  honors 
from  Emory  College,  now  Emory  University.  His  liberal 
training  rested  upon  a  fine  intellectual  foundation.  As 
preacher,  college  president,  and  Church  editor,  he  displayed 
such  fitness  and  achieved  such  success  as  easily  put  him 
amongst  the  leaders  of  the  Connection.  However,  it  is  as 
editor  of  the  Wesley  an  Christian  Advocate  and  as  Missionary 
Secretary,  to  which  latter  office  he  was  elected  in  1890,  that 
he  is  chiefly  known  to  the  Church.  He  served  but  a  year  and 
five  months  as  Missionary  Secretary,  dying  October  11,  1891. 

John  W.  Lambuth  was  the  virtual  founder  of  the  missions 
of  Southern  Methodism  in  Eastern  Asia.  Pew  had  made  foot- 
prints before  him.  He  and  Dr.  Charles  Taylor  and  Dr.  Young 
J.  Allen  constitute  a  trio  of  "master  missionaries,"  preeminent 
in  the  history  of  connectional  missions.  He  was  born  in  Ala- 
7 


98 


History  of  Methodism. 


bama  on  March  2,  1830,  but  early  removed  with  his  parents  to 
Mississippi,  from  the  university  of  which  State  he  graduated. 
Soon  after  leaving  college  he  joined  the  Mississippi  Confer- 
ence and  was  immediately  assigned  by  Bishop  Andrew  to  the 
China  Mission.  In  1854,  with  his  wife,  D.  C.  Kelley,  J.  L. 
Belton,  and  their  families,  he  sailed  to  Shanghai,  China,  where 
he  began  a  missionary  career  which  ended  only  at  the  grave, 
on  April  28,  1892.  The  history  of  the  mission  in  China  for 
thirty-two  years  was  the  history  of  his  life.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  it  was  written:  "There  is  scarcely  a  station  in  our  mis- 
sion that  he  did  not  open,  nor  a  branch  of  its  work  that  does 
not  show  the  impress  of  his  hand."  In  July,  1880,  with  his 
son,  W.  R.  Lambuth  (afterwards  bishop) ,  and  Dr.  A.  O.  Dukes, 
Dr.  Lambuth  opened  the  mission  in  Japan.  It  was  at  his  post 
in  that  field  that  he  fell,  transmitting  to  the  home  Church  the 
urgent  message  by  which  he  will  ever  be  remembered :  "Send 
more  men !" 

Thomas  N.  Ralston  is  best  remembered  as  the  author  of 
"Elements  of  Divinity,"  long  a  standard  in  the  Church  and  a 
textbook  in  the  Conference  course  for  ministers,  and  as  the 
editor  of  the  works  of  Bishop  Bascom.  Of  the  "Elements  of 
Divinity"  an  eminent  preacher  of  the  Connection  is  reported 
to  have  said :  "It  has  not  yet  been  followed  by  an  equal  in  its 
department."  But  Dr.  Ralston  was  also  recognized  as  a 
preacher  of  unusual  power,  and  his  evangelistic  labors  were 
fruitful  of  very  large  results.  Several  times  he  was  made 
Secretary  of  the  General  Conference.  He  died  March  25,  1891, 
in  the  eighty-sixth  year  of  his  age. 

Leonid  as  Rosser,  a  native  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  was  born  July 
31,  1811.  He  was  educated  at  Wesleyan  University,  Middle- 
town,  Conn.,  then  under  the  presidency  of  that  princely  man 
and  scholar,  Wilbur  Fisk.  For  a  time  he  served  in  the  New 
York  Conference,  but  was  later  transferred  to  Virginia,  where 
he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  long  and  fruitful  ministry.  He 
was  at  one  time  chaplain  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  for 
several  years  editor  of  the  Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  and 
a  member  of  several  General  Conferences.  His  death  occurred 
at  Ashland,  Va.,  January  25,  1892. 

Peter  A.  Peterson,  a  colleague  of  Dr.  Rosser,  was  also  born 


Peterson — Whitefoord  Smith — Wiley.  09 


in  Petersburg,  the  date  of  his  birth  being  September  28,  1828. 
Described  as  "a  man  having  a  genius  for  work,"  he  exempli  tied 
the  saying.  First  of  all,  by  prodigious  efforts  he  brought  him- 
self up  to  respectable  scholarship  and  efficiency  from  a  begin- 
ning distressed  with  many  deficiencies  and  limitations.  Then 
he  applied  himself  to  the  task  of  mastering  the  genius  and  disci- 
pline of  his  Church,  in  addition  to  the  happier  task  of  learning 
theology  and  the  duties  of  the  pastoral  office.  It  was  thus  that 
he  came  early  to  stand  amongst  the  first  Church  lawyers  of  his 
day.  A  consecrated  preacher  and  a  faithful  pastor,  he  yet  found 
time  for  much  study  and  library  work.  His  "History  of  the 
Revision  of  the  Discipline"  is  a  volume  of  much  canonical 
value,  appreciated  most  by  those  who  understand  the  pains- 
taking care  and  research  necessary  to  produce  it.  His  death, 
which  occurred  October  6,  1893,  removed  a  forensic  master 
from  the  assemblies  of  Methodism. 

Whitefoord  Smith,  born  in  South  Carolina  November  7, 
1812,  was  reared  as  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  but  in  early  life 
joined  the  Methodist  Church  and  entered  its  ministry  in  1833. 
To  the  pastorate  he  brought  not  only  unusual  natural  endow- 
ments, but  a  thorough  training,  having  graduated  from  the 
South  Carolina  University  at  a  time  when  the  Etonian  per- 
sonal touch  in  the  ideal  of  Southern  education  was  at  its  best. 
He  had  been  soundly  converted  in  his  eighteenth  year  and  thus 
added  an  experience  of  spiritual  fire  to  the  native  fervor  of 
his  Scottish  eloquence.  The  latter  years  of  his  active  life  were 
spent  in  educational  work  as  President  of  Columbia  College 
and  as  Professor  in  Wofford  College,  at  which  latter  institu- 
tion, as  Professor  Emeritus,  he  died  April  27,  1893.  Dr.  Smith 
was  a  member  of  the  Louisville  Convention  of  1845,  which 
completed  the  separation  of  the  Church  into  North  and  South. 
He  was  also  a  member  of  the  commission  of  three  which  pre- 
pared the  first  Southern  Hymnal.  Regularly  after  1846,  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  his  active  ministry,  he  was  a  member  of 
the  General  Conference  and  was  trusted  with  its  responsible 
concerns. 

Ephraim  E.  Wiley,  affectionately  known  as  "the  old  master," 
was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.  Described  as  being  "in  blood  and 
lineage  an  unmixed  Puritan,"  he  presented  a  larger-sidedncss 


100 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  all  that  is  best  in  human  culture  and  conviction.  His  father 
was  a  member  of  the  New  England  Conference.  Like  Dr.  Ros- 
ser,  Dr.  Wiley  received  his  education  at  Wesleyan  University, 
Middletown,  Conn.  His  memories  of  Wilbur  Fisk  and  of 
Daniel  D.  Whedon,  then  a  professor  in  the  university,  were 
an  asset  ana  inspiration  of  all  his  after  life.  Fortune  later 
put  him  and  Dr.  Whedon  on  opposite  sides  in  a  great  historic 
crisis,  but  he  never  lost  veneration  for  the  learning  and  sin- 
cerity of  the  teacher  of  his  youth.  In  1830,  through  the  advice 
of  Dr.  Fisk,  who  died  that  same  year,  young  Wiley  went  to 
Virginia  to  assume  the  presidency  of  Emory  and  Henry  Col- 
lege, where,  he  spent  the  remainder  of  a  long  and  illustrious 
life;  dying  there  on  March  13,  1893,  he  was  buried  in  the 
little  cemetery  on  the  hillside  overlooking  the  college  campus, 
than  which  there  is  no  sunnier  spot  nor  one  more  hallowed  in 
all  the  Old  Dominion.  Dr.  Wiley  was  first  and  above  all  the 
teacher — a  scholar,  a  master  in  the  things  he  taught.  Hellenist 
and  Latinist,  he  not  only  knew  how  to  induct  others  into  that 
fellowship,  but  how  to  make  the  classics  serve  in  teaching  the 
most  direct  truths  of  Christianity.  During  the  long  years  of 
his  presidency  at  Emory  and  Henry  he  was  "college  preacher," 
always  heard  with  profit  and  remembered  with  affection.  In- 
fluenced by  no  schemes  of  personal  ambition,  he  was  from  1854 
onward  through  his  life  a  member  of  the  General  Conferences. 
Several  times  he  received  a  large  vote  for  the  episcopacy,  an 
office  which  he  would  have  greatly  adorned ;  but  it  is  believed 
that  he  discouraged  his  friends  from  considering  him  in  that 
connection.  The  Church  of  the  South  was  blessed  in  his  serv- 
ice, as  the  whole  land  of  the  South  was  honored  in  his  citizen- 
ship. 

Oliver  R.  Blue,  who  was  born  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  March 
24,  1822,  and  who  died  June  8,  1803,  was  so  prominently  iden- 
tified with  the  Church  in  his  native  State  that  his  biographer 
could  say:  "The  record  of  his  life  would  be  a  history  of  Meth- 
odism in  Alabama  for  full  fifty  years."  Bishop  McTyeire  re- 
garded him  as  the  ablest  debater  he  had  ever  seen  on  a  Con 
ference  floor.  In  the  absence  of  bishops,  he  was  twice  elected 
President  of  his  Conference.  By  the  votes  of  his  brethren  he 
was  seven  times  successively  designated  to  sit  in  the  General 


Losses,  North  and  South    In  Canada. 


101 


Conference.  He  had  an  unusual  command  of  pure  English. 
His  preaching  was  strong  and  evangelistic  and  betrayed  a 
deeply  spiritual  personal  experience.  His  memory  abides  in 
the  land  of  the  Church  of  his  birth. 

Thomas  Stanford,  a  member  of  the  Northwest  Texas  Con- 
ference, forty-four  years  a  minister,  and  "one  of  the  most  im- 
portant figures  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in  Texas,"  though 
not  to  be  ranked  in  degree  with  the  greater  men  of  the  Con- 
nection, fairly  won  the  place  of  distinction  which  his  memory 
holds  in  the  affections  of  a  new  generation.  He  was  a  member 
of  six  General  Conferences.   His  death  occurred  in  1892. 

Joseph  B.  West,  a  preacher  of  extraordinary  power  and  of 
happy  experience  and  influence,  died  in  Clarksville,  Tenn., 
May  22,  1802.  His  whole  ministerial  career  was  spent  in  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  whose  most  important  pulpits  he  filled. 

William  H.  Anderson,  preacher  and  educator,  a  graduate 
of  Wesleyan  University  during  the  time  of  the  presidency  of 
Wilbur  Fisk,  an  associate  of  Bishop  Bascom  at  Transylvania 
University,  and  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  died 
May  2,  1893.  He  was  a  man  of  learning  and  consecration,  and 
his  preaching  was  blessed  with  much  success. 

Not  a  few  leading  men  in  the  Church  in  the  North  had  also 
passed  away  during  this  time.  Amongst  these  are  to  be  men- 
tioned the  names  of  Rev.  Jeremiah  H.  Bayliss,  D.D.,  editor  of 
the  Western  Christian  Advocate,  whose  death  occurred  August 
14,  1889;  Dr.  Joseph  Cummings,  President  of  Northwestern 
University,  died  May  7,  1890 ;  Dr.  Daniel  P.  Kidder,  preacher, 
educator,  and  editor,  died  July  9, 1891 ;  Dr.  Benjamin  St.  James 
Fry,  editor  of  the  Central  Christian  Advocate,  St.  Louis,  died 
February  5,  1892;  Dr.  J.  W.  Mendenhall,  editor  of  the  Meth- 
odist Review,  died  June  18,  1892.  The  deaths  of  these  distin- 
guished brethren  were  felt  as  a  loss  throughout  all  American 
Methodism. 

The  Church  in  Canada  found  the  centenary  of  the  death 
of  Wesley  an  occasion  doubly  to  be  remembered.  While  the 
Founder  was  passing  from  earth  in  1791,  Methodist  Societies 
were  being  planted  in  Upper  Canada,  now  the  center  of  the 
heaviest  Methodist  population  in  the  whole  Dominion.  This 
fact  was  celebrated  by  the  publication  in  1891,  by  order  of  the 


102 


History  of  Methodism. 


General  Conference,  of  a  volume  entitled  "The  Centennial  of 
Canadian  Methodism."  This  period  closed  the  discussions 
which  had  attended  the  movement  for  unity;  the  abundant 
fruits  of  unity  were  being  reaped;  a  new  educational  policy, 
that  of  building  Church  schools  in  connection  with  the  great 
State  schools  so  as  to  secure  the  benefits  of  their  ample  equip- 
ments, was  being  entered  upon;  fresh  missionary  fields  were 
being  sought  in  the  neglected  j>arts  0f  heathenism;  and  the 
Church  was  planning  the  spiritual  conquest  of  the  Pacific  and 
Middle  Continental  West,  as  well  as  an  advance  upon  the  so- 
cial and  reform  problems  of  the  older  seats  of  British-Ameri- 
can  civilization.  In  this  last  work  the  Churches  of  Canada 
have  set  an  example  for  the  whole  of  Christendom. 

During  the  four  years  the  record  of  which  is  contained  in 
this  section  of  our  history,  or  from  1890  to  1803,  inclusive,  the 
English  YYesleyan  Conference  met  successively  at  Bristol,  Not- 
tingham, Bradford,  and  Cardiff.  The  Conference  which  met 
in  Bristol  (July,  1890)  was  memorable.  One  hundred  years 
before,  in  the  same  city,  the  Conference  had  met  Mr.  Wesley 
for  the  last  time.  Concerning  the  appearance  of  the  Founder, 
Charles  Atmore  wrote: 

At  this  Conference  I  parted  with  Mr.  Wesley,  to  see  him  no  more 
until  the  resurrection  of  the  just.  He  appeared  very  feeble.  His  eye- 
sight had  failed  so  much  that  he  could  not  see  to  give  out  hymns,  yet 
his  voice  was  strong,  his  spirit  remarkably  lively,  and  the  powers  of 
his  mind  and  his  love  toward  his  fellow  creatures  were  as  bright  and 
as  ardent  as  ever. 

This  centenary  year  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  retrospect 
of  the  hundred  years  of  the  Connection's  corporate  existence, 
especially  of  the  latter  fifty  years,  including  the  Wesleyan 
Forward  Movement,  reference  to  which  has  already  been  made. 
"The  Address  of  the  Conference  to  the  Methodist  Societies," 
which  takes  the  place  of  the  Episcopal  Address  common  to 
the  American  Churches,  said  : 

As  we  look  back  over  the  century  we  mark  the  hand  of  God  in  the 
growth  of  our  ecclesiastical  constitution,  in  the  creation  of  our  Church 
institutions,  in  the  literary  embodiment  of  our  theology,  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  our  type  of  spiritual  and  evangelical  life,  and  in  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Methodist  form  of  Christianity  to  many  lands. 


In  the  Wesley  an  Connection. 


103 


This  address  was  signed  by  Dr.  W.  F.  Moulton,  President, 
and  Dr.  D.  J.  Waller,  Secretary.  Addresses  were  also  re- 
ceived and  sent  to  the  Irish  Conference,  the  Conference  in 
France  and  Switzerland,  the  Conference  in  South  Africa,  and 
that  in  the  West  Indies,  all  being  in  administrative  relations 
to  the  Legal  Conference  in  Great  Britain.  At  this  time  nine 
hundred  and  twelve  circuits  and  stations  were  reported  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  sixteen  in  France  and  Switzer- 
land, one  hundred  and  thirty-three  in  South  Africa,  twenty- 
eight  in  the  West  Indies,  three  hundred  and  twenty-three  in 
foreign  missions  (in  Europe,  India,  China,  Burma,  Africa,  and 
South  and  Central  America). 

The  constitutional  and  administrative  machinery  of  the 
Wesleyan  Connection,  though  by  derivation  the  oldest  of  the 
Methodist  polities,  is  so  dissimilar  from  those  of  the  other 
Connections  that  it  may  be  well  here  to  outline  it.  As  is  well 
known,  the  constitution  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
inheres  in  the  Deed  of  Declaration,  or  the  Deed  Poll,  as  it  is 
often  called,  executed  by  Mr.  Wesley  on  February  28,  1784. 
By  the  Deed  Poll  Mr.  Wesley  vested  the  governing  authority 
of  the  Methodist  Societies  in  a  Legal  Conference  of  one  hundred 
preachers,  provided  for  the  filling  by  the  Conference  of  vacan- 
cies as  they  should  from  time  to  time  occur,  defined  the  powers 
and  duties  of  the  Conference,  and  prescribed  certain  condi- 
tions which  were  to  be  permanent.  Thus  the  "Conference,"  or 
governing  body  of  the  Church,  consists  of  one  hundred  mem- 
bers. Forty  of  these  constitute  a  quorum.  From  this  body  of 
one  hundred  the  president  and  secretary  of  the  Conference 
are  selected.  No  man  can  be  president  more  than  one  year 
in  eight.  The  secretary  may  be  regularly  reelected.  The  act 
of  a  majority  is  the  act  of  the  Conference,  and  until  repealed 
it  is  the  law  of  the  Church.  Vacancies  in  the  "Legal  Hundred" 
occur  in  three  ways — namely,  through  death,  through  absence 
of  members  for  two  successive  years  without  the  consent  or 
direction  of  the  body,  and  through  the  act  of  the  Legal  Hun- 
dred in  declaring  that  certain  persons,  as  superannuates,  two- 
year  supernumeraries,  etc.,  are  no  longer  members.  An  ex- 
president  is  a  member  for  life.  Ten  of  the  Legal  Hundred 
are  always  taken  from  the  preachers  in  Ireland.    The  presi- 


104 


History  of  Methodism. 


dent  has  the  voting  power  of  two  members  and  is  the  head  of 
the  Church  for  the  twelve  months  following  his  election,  or 
until  his  successor  is  installed.  He  presides  in  the  District 
Synods  and  other  connectional  meetings.  The  chief  powers  of 
the  Conference,  or  Legal  Hundred,  are  thus  denned : 

The  chief  powers  confided  to  the  Conference  by  the  Deed  of  Declara- 
tion relate  (1)  to  the  admission  of  persons  to  be  "preachers  and  ex- 
pounders of  God's  Holy  Word''  or,  upon  trial  for  this  office,  in  connection 
with  them;  (2)  the  putting  out  of  any  member  of  the  Legal  Conference 
from  being  a  member  thereof  and  of 'any  person  admitted  as  a  preacher 
into  connection  with  them  or,  upon  trial,  "for  any  cause  which  to  the 
Conference  may  seem  fit  or  necessary";  and  (3)  the  appointment  of 
preachers  "to  the  use  and  enjoyment  of,  or  to  preach  and  expound  God's 
Holy  Word  in,  any  of  the  chapels"  of  the  Connection.  (4)  The  exercise 
of  this  last  power  is  restricted  by  the  provision  that  the  Conference 
shall  not,  nor  may,  appoint  any  person  for  more  than  three  years  suc- 
cessively to  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  any  chapels  and  premises  which 
are  subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  said  Deed  of  Declaration,  except 
ordained  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  Deed  Poll  requires  that  the  Conference  send  yearly  a 
delegate  or  delegates  to  Ireland,  and  the  action  of  the  said 
delegate  or  delegates  in  making  appointments  and  performing 
other  acts  in  the  Irish  Conference  are  the  acts  of  the  Legal 
Hundred.  But  this  authority,  as  used,  is  that  of  legal  form 
only.  In  Ireland  and  in  the  affiliated  Connections  in  France. 
South  Africa,  and  the  West  Indies,  the  Conferences  elect  their 
own  presidents,  but  they  are  confirmed  by  the  yearly  Confer- 
ence, or  Legal  Hundred,  in  England. 

This  is  the  constitution  and  this  the  legal  administration 
which  it  guarantees.  But  from  the  first  the  Legal  Conference 
has  associated  with  itself  a  larger  Conference  which,  in  distinc- 
tion from  the  Legal  Hundred,  is  called  the  Representative  Con- 
ference. It  is  composed  (a)  of  assistant  secretaries  of  the  Con- 
ference not  members  of  the  Legal  Hundred,  (b)  the  chairmen 
of  districts  in  Great  Britain  not  members  of  the  Legal  Hun- 
dred, (c)  six  ministers  from  the  foreign  mission  field,  (d) 
ministerial  delegates  elected  yearly  by  the  District  Synods 
in  England.  A  delegation  of  laymen  equal  to  the  body  of  min- 
isters is  also  contained  in  this  larger  Conference.  One-eighth 
of  these  laymen  are  elected  by  the  yearly  Conference,  and  in  this 


Hie  English  Conference — Wesley  Centenary.  105 


one-eighth  are  included  those  laymen  who  are  connected  with 
the  various  boards  and  administrations  of  the  Church.  The 
other  seven-eighths  are  elected  by  the  lay  members  of  the  Dis- 
trict Synods,  much  as  lay  elections  are  had  in  America. 

There  are  two  distinct  sessions  of  the  Conference  when  fully 
constituted.  The  first  is  that  known  as  the  representative 
session,  composed  of  all  the  ministers  (members  of  the  Legal 
Hundred  and  those  otherwise  designated)  and  all  lay  dele- 
gates, however  returned.  At  this  representative  session  the 
vacancies  of  the  Legal  Hundred  are  filled  up,  the  president 
and  secretary  are  elected,  and  all  matters  of  finance  and  gen- 
eral policy  are  considered  and  acted  upon.  Following  this  ses- 
sion comes  the  pastoral  session,  composed  solely  of  the  min- 
isters, members  of  the  Legal  Hundred,  those  clerical  delegates 
returned  from  the  District  Synods  or  otherwise  designated. 
The  business  of  this  session  is  to  consider  ministerial  char- 
acter, receive,  retire,  and  dismiss  ministerial  members,  and 
fix  the  appointments.  No  minister  can  be  a  member  of  Con- 
ference or  vote  who  has  not  traveled  ten  years ;  no  person  can 
be  elected  to  membership  in  the  Legal  Hundred  who  has  not 
been  fourteen  years  in  the  ministry.  A  layman  must  have 
been  five  years  a  member  of  the  Church  to  be  eligible  to  sit  in 
the  representative  session.  Any  clerical  member  may  nominate 
a  member  for  any  office,  from  president  down,  and  every  other 
vacancy  occurring  in  the  Legal  Hundred  is  filled  by  the  vote 
of  the  Pastoral  Conference.  However,  all  acts  of  both  sessions 
to  become  legal  must  be  ratified  by  the  Legal  Hundred.  But 
so  democratic  and  representative  is  the  spirit  of  Wesleyanism 
that  this  also  has  become  little  more  than  a  legal  formality. 
Many  of  the  important  administrative  changes  now  expressed 
in  the  order  of  the  Conference  sessions  came  about  in  the  period 
to  which  this  chapter  belongs. 

In  1891  Dr.  T.  Bowman  Stephenson  was  the  President  of  the 
Conference,  with  Dr.  Waller  still  in  the  secretaryship.  It 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  centenary  year  of  John  Wesley's 
death,  and  the  Nonconformist  Churches  of  England,  the 
Churches  of  Scotland,  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  the  Mo- 
ravians paid  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  great  leader  by 
sending  delegations  and  addresses  to  the  Conference.  Formal 


106 


History  of  Methodism. 


recognitions  were  also  noted  from  representative  ministers 
of  the  Established  Chinch. 

The  event  connected  with  the  next  year's  session  which  was 
of  chief  interest  to  American  Methodists,  especially  those  of 
the  South,  was  the  official  visit  paid  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence (Dr.  J.  H.  Rigg,  President)  by  Bishop  Charles  B.  Gallo- 
way, the  first  fraternal  delegate  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  to  the  mother  Connection.  The  Conference  of 
180.3  recognized  this  visit  in  the  following  address: 

The  Conference,  assembled  to-day  in  its  representative  session  and 
consisting  of  the  representatives  of  both  the  ministry  and  laity  of  our 
Church,  has  instructed  us  by  unanimous  resolution  to  communicate  its 
most  cordial  fraternal  greetings  to  the  bishops,  ministers,  and  members 
of  your  Church  appointed  to  meet  in  General  Conference  in  the  spring 
of  next  year.  It  remembers  with  pleasure  the  visit  of  your  distin- 
guished delegate,  Bishop  Galloway,  whose  stirring  words  strengthened 
not  only  our  interest  in  your  great  work,  but  also  the  bonds  that  already 
bound  our  Church  with  yours  in  sympathy,  respect,  and  hope.    .    .  . 

Faithfully  yours,  Henry  J.  Pope,  President; 

David  J.  Waller.  Secretary. 

The  list  of  the  Legal  Hundred  at  this  time  carried  such  well- 
known  names  as  Henry  J.  Pope,  David  J.  Waller,  William 
Arthur,  James  H.  Bigg,  William  F.  Moulton,  Charles  H.  Kelly, 
T.  Bowman  Stephenson,  William  L.  Watkinson,  Mark  Guy 
Pearse,  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  and  Joseph  Agar  Beet.  The 
whole  Methodist  world  was  saddened  by  the  death,  on  April 
18,  1891,  of  Dr.  George  Osborn,  twice  President  of  the  Con- 
ference and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 
Not  since  Wesley  had  a  more  commanding  and  masterful  man 
occupied  the  presidential  chair,  and  the  venerable  age  in  which 
he  came  to  the  second  incumbency  of  that  post  distinctly  re- 
called the  circumstances  of  Mr.  Wesley's  last  presidency,  in 
1700. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Significance  of  the  General  Conference — Twelfth.  General  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South— Fifty  Years  of  History — A 
Fraternal  Document — The  Epworth  Era — Sundry  Acts  of  the  General 
Conference — Board  of  Education — The  Veto  Power — Federation — 
1894-1897. 

~A  /TORE  and  more  the  General  Conference  in  Methodism  has 


1 V  I  come  to  be  not  only  the  cumulative  expression  of  the 
fiscal  and  temporal  activities  of  the  various  Connections,  but 
has  also  come  to  be  the  chief  determinant  in  the  historical 
problems  of  the  Church.  In  this  Conference  the  work  and 
testimony  of  the  people  called  Methodists  reach,  their  most 
pronounced  expression.  At  first  the  minutes,  or  journals,  of 
this  general  gathering  were  a  negligible  incident.  Brief  notes 
were  kept  by  the  secretary,  but  were  not  intended  for  publica- 
tion. As  time  went  by,  destiny  began  to  be  manifest,  and  the 
law  of  evolution  asserted  itself.  It  was  seen  that  the  Journal 
was  to  be  of  value,  immediate  and  historic.  Behold  it  now, 
grown  into  a  mighty  volume,  a  blue  book  of  the  kingdom. 
The  repository  of  the  Episcopal  Address,  the  fraternal  mes- 
sages, the  reports  of  committees  and  commissions  appointed  to 
scrutinize  and  revise  the  details  of  temporal  and  spiritual 
administrations,  the  credenda  and  agenda  of  the  Church's 
life,  it  becomes  the  integration  of  denominational  history. 
Not  only  so  as  to  its  canonical  voice,  but  the  Conference  also 
comes  to  be  a  silent  factor  in  shaping  sentiment  and  determin- 
ing the  value  and  effectiveness  of  dates.  It  validates  times  and 
changes  of  times.  The  Olympiad  not  only  marked  the  correla- 
tion of  years  for  the  Greeks  and  helped  to  preserve  their  racial 
unity ;  it  registered  and  determined  the  course  of  the  currents 
of  Hellenic  thought  and  life.  After  its  theology,  the  Con- 
ference system  of  Methodism  is  the  secret  of  its  success  and 
influence.  It  is  the  instrumentality  which  articulates  all  its 
activities. 

The  twelfth  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South  (being  the  twenty-seventh  since  1784),  met  in 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  May  3,  1894.   The  date  recalled  the  fact  that 


(107) 


108 


History  of  Methodism. 


just  fifty  years  before  the  American  Church  had  been  divided 
into  two  cognate  bodies,  North  and  South,  by  the  "Plan  of  Sep- 
aration/' authorized  by  the  General  Conference  of  1814.  It  is 
now  too  late  to  need  to  argue  the  merits  of  the  issues  involved 
in  the  record  of  Separation.  They  are  carried  upon  the  face 
of  the  discussions  and  legislation  in  which  this  Separation 
originated ;  they  were  sealed  by  the  action  of  the  highest  courts 
of  the  land  and  afterwards  conventionally  recognized  by  the 
two  Churches  interested.  Happily,  also  the  factional  feelings 
and  prejudices  of  an  earlier  time  have  almost  wholly  passed 
away. 

The  increment  of  this  chronological  and  spiritual  jubilee  was 
effectively  referred  to  by  the  bishops  of  the  Southern  Church 
in  their  address  to  the  General  Conference  of  this  year : 

To-day  we  recall  the  last  General  Conference  of  the  undivided  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  which  sat  in  the  city  of  New  York  fifty  years 
ago.  Under  the  Plan  of  Separation  then  adopted  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South,  was  organized.  We  desire  to  record  our  gratitude 
to  God  for  his  good  hand  upon  us,  hy  which  we  have  heen  led  and  pros- 
pered during  the  half  century  of  our  separate  history.  We  humbly  and 
penitently  confess  that  we  have  come  far  short  of  doing  our  whole  duty 
and  improving  fully  our  great  opportunity,  hut  we  thank  God  and  take 
courage  in  review  of  the  good  work  which  hy  his  providence  and  grace 
we  have  been  able  to  accomplish  in  conserving  and  spreading  Scrip- 
tural holiness  through  these  lands.  ...  A  special  tie  binds  us  to 
the  Wesleyan  families  in  our  own  and  other  countries.  With  warm 
fraternal  regard  we  note  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  which  has  a  common  history  with  us  from  the  begin- 
ning of  Methodism  on  this  continent  down  to  1844.  Each  of  these 
Churches  has  its  own  genius,  its  own  distinctive  spirit,  views,  and  meth- 
ods, whose  development  without  injurious  strife  and  obstruction  de- 
mands as  a  condition  the  preservation  of  its  denominational  integrity 
and  independence.  Their  many  points  of  agreement  furnish  a  basis  and 
motive  for  cordial  cooperation  with  each  other  in  any  judicious  meas- 
ures to  reduce  whatever  friction  and  waste  of  resources  result  from  the 
relations  now  existing  between  them. 

As  historically  and  sentimentally  fitting  this  utterance  and 
as  memorabilia  of  the  new  days  of  fraternity  and  good  will, 
and  also  as  a  recorded  pledge  of  maturing  Methodist  unity, 
certain  statements  coming  from  "a  literary  staff"  composed  of 
leading  ministers  in  the  North  should  be  entered  here.  These 
statements  are  contained  in  a  publication  known  as  "A  TTi<- 


1  Fraternal  Document — Present  History. 


L09 


tory  of  the  General  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church"  and  authoritatively  printed  by  the  l>ook  Concern, 
New  York  and  Cincinnati,  in  1000: 

Meanwhile  some  of  the  Northern  Conferences  had  failed  to  ratify 
the  Plan  of  Separation,  and  the  claim  began  to  be  set  up  that  on  this 
account  the  Southern  Church  was  not  entitled  to  any  share  in  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Book  Concern.  They  had  been  pushed  to  a  position  from 
which  retreat  was  impossible,  and  yet  it  was  alleged  that  they  were 
"seceders,"  because  Northern  Conferences  had  denied  them  the  right  to 
go  in  peace.  The  South  had  done  all  that  was  possible  on  its  part  to 
carry  out  the  Plan  of  Separation  as  mutually  agreed  upon  in  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1844,  and  then  to  be  called  "seceders"  was  more  than 
flesh  and  blood  could  bear.  Commissioners  on  both  sides  were  appoint- 
ed for  the  adjustment  of  difficulties,  but  those  of  the  North  refused  to 
act  and  referred  the  South  to  the  General  Conference  of  1848.  That 
assembly  has  been  well  characterized  as  "a  reactionary  body  elected  in 
a  revolutionary  period."  Very  few  of  the  members  of  1844  reappeared. 
The  temper  of  the  Conference  was  averse  to  a  Southern  Methodism, 
nearly  all  of  its  members  having  been  elected  on  a  pledge  to  repudi- 
ate the  Plan  of  Separation.  .  .  .  The  Southern  brethren  could  not  fail 
to  be  impressed  by  this  change  of  attitude  as  to  the  powers  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference.  In  1844  Dr.  Hamline  had  carried  the  great  majority 
of  the  body  enthusiastically  with  him  while  he  showed  that  the  Con- 
ference possessed  plenary  powers  and  was  entitled  to  take  whatever 
action  it  pleased,  except  in  so  far  as  such  action  might  be  prohibited  by 
the  Restrictive  Rules.  There  was  no  restrictive  rule  which  forbade  the 
Conference  to  expel  or  suspend  a  bishop  without  form  of  trial;  there- 
fore the  Conference  had  the  power  and  right  to  expel  or  suspend  Bishop 
Andrew.  But  now  the  opposite  theory  was  maintained.  It  was  some- 
how discovered  that  the  General  Conference  possessed  no  powers  except 
such  as  were  specifically  given  to  it  by  the  Discipline;  therefore  the 
Conference  of  1844  had  no  authority  to  enact  a  Plan  of  Separation,  and 
that  of  1848  had  no  power  to  divide  any.  Church  property.  This  latter 
doctrine  was  as  convenient  for  the  majority  of  1848  as  was  the  oppo- 
site doctrine  for  the  majority  of  1844.  Failing  thus  to  obtain  what  they 
believed  to  be  their  rights,  the  Church,  South,  "appealed  to  Caesar." 
And  "Caesar"  vindicated  them. 

The  present  history  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  Southern 
Church,  the  writing  of  which  has  originated  in  somewhat  the 
same  way  as  the  volume  from  which  the  above  excerpts  are 
taken,  is  a  proper  repository  for  these  frank  and  noteworthy 
sentiments  meant  as  a  peace  offering  to  the  men  of  the  South 
by  their  brethren  of  "the  other  part"  and  uttered  at  the  golden 
dawn  of  the  new  century.    Mutual  concessions  and  mutual 


110 


History  of  Methodism. 


recognitions  constitute  the  basis  upon  which  Methodist  frater- 
nity has  been  solidly  built.  Thus  grounded,  its  tenure  cannot 
be  doubtful. 

Several  important  issues  and  departures  were  at  the  point 
of  emergence  in  the  Methodism  of  the  South  when  the  General 
Conference  met  at  Memphis  in  1894.  First,  the  Young  People's 
Movement  asked  for,  and  was  given,  an  official  organ,  which 
when  launched  was  known  as  the  Epworth  Era;  second,  a 
plan  for  the  formation  of  an  Educational  Department  was  suc- 
cessfully brought  forward  and  adopted ;  third,  the  episcopal 
veto,  or  arrestive  objection  of  the  bishops  to  unconstitutional 
legislation,  was  for  the  first  time  invoked  and  sustained.  For 
the  rest  it  may  be  said  the  ratio  of  representation  in  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  was  changed  from  a  basis  of  thirty-six  to  a 
basis  of  forty-eight  members  of  the  Annual  Conference;  the 
functions  of  the  Annual  Conferences  were  enlarged  by  giving  to 
them  the  appointment  of  committees  of  trial  and  thus  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Church  courts;  while  to  the  District  Confer- 
ence wras  given  the  oversight  and  licensing  of  local  preachers, 
formerly  a  function  of  the  Quarterly  Conference.  The  impor 
tant  subject  of  the  Federation  of  Methodism  was  given  its  first 
practical  setting  at  this  time  in  the  appointment  of  a  commis- 
sion, to  meet  a  similar  commission  from  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  to  consider  a  plan  of  federation.  This  commis- 
sion was  constituted,  and  thus  was  begun  a  history  which  has 
brought  the  diplomacy  of  the  Churches  to  an  interesting  and 
pleasing  conjunction. 

The  Board  of  Education  was  organized  by  the  election  of 
the  following-named  members  to  serve  for  four  years — viz. : 
C.  B.  Galloway,  E.  R.  Hendrix,  W.  W.  Smith,  W.  A.  Candler, 
J.  D.  Hammond,  J.  H.  McLean,  J.  H.  Kirkland,  R.  E.  Crockett. 
.J.  H.  Carlisle,  W.  B.  Hitt,  A.  Coke  Smith,  B.  N.  Duke,  E.  W. 
Cole,  E.  H.  B.  Anderson,  and  J.  S.  Kennedy.  The  purpose  of 
organization,  as  set  forth  in  the  preamble  of  the  report  adopted 
in  May,  1894,  is  as  follows:  "To  apply  more  effectively  the 
powers  of  education  to  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  by  the  upbuilding  of  existing  educational  institutions 
of  our  Church,  the  establishment  of  new  cues,  and  the  union 
of  all  into  a  harmonious  system,  and  by  assisting  those  pre 


Hoard  of  Education. 


Ill 


paring  for  our  foreign  or  home  ministry  and  other  worthy 
students  of  limited  means  to  attend  our  schools." 

Soon  after  its  organization  the  Board  made  a  declaration 
of  "aim  and  policy"  as  follows : 

In  discharging  the  duty  of  supervising  and  giving  direction,  so  far 
as  its  powers  extend,  to  the  great  work  of  education  by  our  Church,  it 
will  be  the  aim  of  this  Board  (1)  to  promote  the  endowment  of  existing 
colleges  which  have  the  elements  of  success  and  the  necessary  condi- 
tions of  usefulness;  (2)  to  repress  the  tendency  to  multiply  institutions 
with  inadequate  prospects  of  support  which  has  strewed  our  territory 
with  the  ruins  of  more  colleges  than  we  have  now  in  operation  and 
dragged  to  the  dust  with  them  the  credit  of  the  indorsing  Conferences; 
(3)  to  encourage  the  establishment  of  academies,  which  are  especially 
demanded  by  present  educational  conditions  and  are  easily  within  the 
reach  of  our  means  and  should  be  placed  in  close  correlation  with  such 
institutions  of  our  Church  as  the  Annual  Conferences  may  direct;  (4) 
to  complete  our  system  by  correlating  as  rapidly  as  possible  our  Con- 
ference colleges  with  the  graduate  and  professional  departments  of  Van- 
derbilt  University.*  To  carry  out  these  purposes  we  propose  (1)  to 
bring  into  cooperation  with  the  General  Board  the  Conference  Boards  of 
Education  as  already  provided  by  law,  and  for  the  more  perfect  organ- 
ization of  the  educational  work  in  the  several  Conferences  we  ask  that 
each  Conference  appoint  a  Secretary  of  Education;  (2)  to  secure  full 
and  accurate  statistics  of  our  educational  work  so  far  as  possible  and 
to  deliver  addresses  and  prepare  and  print  pamphlets,  tracts,  and  arti- 
cles on  the  subject  of  Christian  education  and  the  condition  and  needs 
of  our  work;  (3)  to  urge  upon  our  Annual  Conferences  to  make  such 
assessments  for  the  educational  work  in  their  respective  bounds,  under 
the  law  of  the  Church  as  indicated  in  the  Discipline,  as  shall  be  ade- 
quate to  maintain  them  upon  a  plane  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the 
public  and  patronage  of  our  Church;  (4)  to  invite  and  seek  contribu- 
tions of  money  for  the  following  purposes:  (a)  To  aid,  to  such  extent 
as  may  be  necessary,  young  men  properly  certified  to  secure  a  sufficient 
training  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  of  our  Church,  this  chiefly  in 
our  weaker  Conferences;  (&)  to  assist  colleges  already  founded  to  a 
solid  position  and  adequate  facilities  by  offering  contributions  from 
the  Board,  on  condition  that  their  immediate  friends  and  supporters 
shall  do  what  is  necessary  to  assure  the  proposed  result  (no  money  will 


♦Vanderbilt  University  at  this  time  was  the  property  of  the  Church 
and  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Conferences.  That  ownership  has 
since  been  destroyed  and  the  institution  removed  from  the  circle  of  the 
Church's  oversight.  The  substance  of  this  declaration  applies  legally  to 
the  ''graduate  and  professional  departments"  of  Emory  University,  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  Southern  Methodist  University,  at  Dallas,  Tex. 


112 


History  of  Methodism. 


be  appropriated  merely  to  maintain  institutions  as  they  are) ;  (c)  to 
place  the  two  institutions  for  colored  people  which  are  under  our  care 
upon  a  firm  and  satisfactory  footing. 

To  aid  the  Board  in  its  work  of  properly  relating  the  schools 
of  the  Church,  the  General  Conference  of  1898  provided  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Commission  on  Education.  It  is  the  duty 
of  this  commission  "to  protect  the  educational  standards  of 
the  Church.  They  shall  prescribe  the  minimum  requirements 
to  be  demanded  of  the  several  classes  of  institutions  belonging 
to  or  controlled  by  the  Church."  The  commission  is  required 
to  revise  its  work  at  least  once  during  each  quadrennium  and 
to  report  the  same  to  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  General  Conference  of  1902  authorized  the  Board  of 
Education  to  establish  a  Bureau  of  Correspondence  which 
should  prepare  courses  to  be  offered  to  all  ministers  or  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry  under  such  regulations  as  may  officially 
be  approved.  In  pursuance  of  the  above  order  the  Board  or- 
ganized the  Correspondence  School  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  This  department  was  ready  for  work  early 
in  the  fiscal  year  of  1902.  This  proved  to  be  an  important  de- 
parture, and  the  work  expanded  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
General  Conference  of  1914  made  provision  for  giving  it  a 
separate  existence,  designating  it  the  "Department  of  Minis- 
terial Supply  and  Training."  The  purpose  of  the  department 
is  declared  to  be  "to  develop  a  more  efficient  ministry  by  keep- 
ing before  the  Church  its  responsibility  in  raising  up  young 
men  for  this  service;  by  inspiring  young  ministers  and  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry  with  the  high  ideal  of  their  work  and 
stimulating  them  to  a  thorough  preparation  therefor;  by  de- 
veloping and  correlating  the  ministerial  education  of  the 
Church ;  by  giving  financial  assistance  to  young  men  preparing 
for  the  ministry  from  the  Ministerial  Education  Loan  Fund 
and  from  other  such  funds  as  may  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Board 
for  this  purpose;  by  conducting  correspondence  courses  for 
the  benefit  of  preachers,  teachers,  and  other  Christian  work- 
ers; and  by  such  other  methods  as  the  Board  may  from  time 
to  time  deem  desirable." 

The  question  of  a  veto  of  legislation  in  the  General  Confer 
ence  has  long  been  at  the  fore  of  Methodist  discussion.    In  the 


The  So-Called  "Episcopal  Veto. 


113 


two  Episcopal  Methodist  bodies  divers  views  have  been  held, 
and  divers  methods  have  been  employed  to  check  unconstitu- 
tional departures.  The  Church  in  the  North  has  considered 
the  General  Conference  to  be  the  judge  of  the  constitutionality 
of  its  own  acts.  In  the  Church  of  the  South  the  matter  very 
early  took  a  radically  different  turn.  At  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1854  the  following  measure  was  passed — viz. : 

Provided,  That  when  any  rule  or  regulation  is  adopted  by  the  General 
Conference  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  bishops,  is  unconstitutional, 
the  said  bishops  may  present  to  the  General  Conference  their  objec- 
tions to  such  rule  or  regulation,  with  the  reasons  thereof;  and  if,  after 
hearing  the  objections  and  reasons  of  the  bishops,  two-thirds  of  the 
members  of  the  General  Conference  present  shall  still  vote  in  favor  of 
the  rule  or  regulation  so  objected  to,  it  shall  have  the  force  of  law; 
otherwise  it  shall  be  null  and  void. 

This  order  was  given  a  place  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  in 
the  chapter  on  the  General  Conference  and  was  thus  incor- 
porated as  a  part  of  the  Restrictive  Rules  of  the  constitution. 
That  the  provision,  because  of  the  method  of  its  enactment  and 
incorporation,  was  unconstitutional  should  have  gone  upon  the 
face  of  it ;  but  the  constitutional  atmosphere  was  at  that  time 
hazy,  and  but  few  precedents  had  been  established.  However, 
the  author  of  the  rule,  Dr.  W.  A.  Smith,  of  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference, became  convinced  of  its  deficiency  and  sought  to 
remedy  the  same.  This  he  no  doubt  would  have  done,  except  for 
the  interregnum  from  1858  to  1866  imposed  by  the  War  between 
the  States.  In  1866  the  matter  was  up  in  the  New  Orleans 
General  Conference,  but  the  crowded  condition  of  the  calendar 
of  that  memorable  sitting  caused  it  again  to  be  left  over.  At 
the  General  Conference  of  1870  it  came  up  as  a  primary  item. 
In  the  meantime,  however,  the  great  leader  and  Church  states- 
man who  conceived  and  wrote  the  provision  had  died;  but  in 
the  chairman  of  the  committee  to  which  it  was  referred,  the 
Rev.  Le  Roy  M.  Lee,  D.D.,  of  Virginia,  it  found  such  exposi- 
tion and  correction  as  have  served  to  make  it  one  of  the  hap- 
piest and  safest  departures  in  Church  polity.  The  report  of 
Dr.  Lee  on  this  provision  has  become  one  of  the  great  State 
papers  of  Methodism.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  priceless  dissertation 
on  the  constitution  and  particularly  stresses  the  rights  of  the 
8 


114 


History  of  Methodism. 


body  of  the  elders,  from  whom  the  constitution  was  derived 
(or  rather  their  successors,  the  clerical  and  lay  members  of  the 
present-day  Annual  Conferences),  to  determine  the  processes 
by  which  unconstitutional  acts  of  the  General  Conference  may 
be  arrested,  thus  paralleling  with  remarkable  exactness  the 
principles  of  the  national  Constitution.  The  inherent  correct- 
ness of  the  original  veto  measure  was  admitted  in  the  report 
and  strongly  supported  by  its  arguments;  only  the  method  of 
its  adoption  was  disallowed.   Dr.  Lee  said  : 

The  General  Conference  is  a  dependent  and  responsible  body — depend- 
ent for  its  being  and  authority  upon  the  original  body  of  elders  and  re- 
sponsible to  them  for  its  fidelity  in  the  use  of  the  powers  delegated 
to  it.  But  without  some  provision  of  the  constitution,  such  as  was 
aimed  to  be  established  in  the  proviso  under  consideration,  there  is  no 
legitimate  or  authoritative  mode,  either  of  questioning  the  constitution- 
ality of  its  acts  or  of  remitting  them  to  another  tribunal  for  adjudica- 
tion. And  in  the  absence  of  suitable  provision  for  this  purpose  the 
General  Conference  may  exercise  the  power,  even  if  it  does  not  claim  the 
right,  of  determining  the  constitutionality  of  its  own  acts;  and  in  such 
event  the  General  Conference  absorbs  all  power  into  itself,  its  respon- 
sibility ceases,  and  it  can  "revoke,  alter,  change,  or  destroy"  even  the 
constitution  itself  at  its  own  will  and  by  its  own  act.  Such  power 
was  not  given  to  it  nor  intended  to  be  given.  But  all  this  power  would 
have  been  given  if  in  what  was  given  had  been  included  the  right  of 
determining  the  constitutionality  of  its  own  acts.  The  original  body  of 
elders  delegated  everything  of  power  they  possessed,  if  they  delegated 
this  power.  They  reserved  nothing  to  themselves  if  they  did  not  reserve 
the  right  to  guard  their  own  constitution,  if  they  did  not  reserve  the 
right  of  determining  the  constitutionality  of  the  acts  of  the  delegated 
body,  if  they  did  not  reserve  the  right  to  hold  their  agents  and  repre- 
sentatives in  the  grasp  of  a  grave,  dignified,  and  ceaseless  responsibility 
to  themselves  as  the  ultimate  and  only  legitimate  judge  of  their  acts 
and  of  their  fidelity  to  the  engagements  and  obligations  of  the  constitu- 
tion made  and  provided  for  their  especial  guidance  and  government. 
It  is  incredible  that  such  a  body  of  men  as  those  who  inaugurated  the 
constitution  of  the  Church  and  checked  and  restrained  the  General 
Conference,  with  such  limitations  and  such  restraints  upon  their  power, 
coujd  have  been  so  incautious  and  inconsiderate  as  to  dispossess  and 
deprive  themselves  so  utterly  of  any  further  and  all  future  relations 
to  and  control  over  those  to  whom  they  intrusted  their  rights  and  dele- 
gated their  powers.  Such  a  supposition  would  be  an  assault  upon  their 
integrity  and  intelligence  as  unjust  as  it  is  unmerited.    .    .  . 

The  report  then  recommended  that,  on  a  concurrent  two- 
thirds  favorable  vote  of  the  General  Conference  and  a  three- 


Final  Adoption  of  "Veto"  Provision.  115 

fourths  majority  vote  of  the  members  of  the  Annual  Confer- 
ences, the  following  be  made  a  pari  of  the  Restrictive  Rules  of 
the  constitution: 

Provided,  That  when  any  rule  or  regulation  is  adopted  by  the  Gener- 
al Conference  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  bishops,  is  unconstitutional,* 
the  bishops  may  present  to  the  General  Conference  which  passed  said 
rule  or  regulation  their  objections  thereto,  with  their  reasons,  in  writ- 
ing; and  if  then  the  General  Conference  shall  by  a  two-thirds  vote  ad- 
here to  its  action  on  said  rule  or  regulation,  it  shall  take  the  course 
prescribed  for  altering  a  restrictive  rule;  and  if  thus  passed  upon  af- 
firmatively, the  bishops  shall  announce  that  such  rule  or  regulation 
takes  effect  from  that  time. 

This  rule  went  through  the  required  constitutional  process 
and  was  duly  incorporated  in  the  Discipline.  It  remained  un- 
invoked,  however,  until  near  the  end  of  the  century.  The  first 
occasion  for  its  use  was  created  at  the  General  Conference  of 
1894.  At  the  previous  General  Conference  a  commission  was 
appointed  to  revise  Chapters  VII.  and  VIII.  of  the  Book  of 
Discipline.  These  chapters,  entitled  "The  Administration  of 
Discipline,"  contained  at  that  time  the  laws  governing  the 
trial  and  appeal  of  bishops,  preachers,  and  laymen.  At  the 
General  Conference  of  1894,  a  sitting  marked  by  strong  senti- 
ments of  reaction,  the  commission  reported  a  revision  of  these 
chapters.  The  report  was  discussed,  committed  to  a  new  spe- 
cial committee,  and  finally  adopted  without  having  been  fully 
read.  One  of  the  changes  effected  by  the  revision  was  thus 
expressed :  "Every  case  to  be  tried  shall  be  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee of  not  less  than  nine  nor  more  than  thirteen,  who  shall 
be  selected  by  lot  from  the  members  of  the  Conference,  who  in 
the  presence  of  a  bishop  or  a  chairman  whom  the  President  of 
the  Conference  shall  appoint,  and  one  or  more  of  the  secre- 
taries, shall  have  full  power  to  try  the  case;  and  their  decision 
shall  be  final,  save  as  to  the  right  of  appeal."  The  effect  of  this 
was  to  make  laymen  eligible  to  membership  on  the  committees 
appointed  for  the  trial  of  ministers.  This  the  College  of 
Bishops  held  to  be  a  violation  of  the  plan,  constitutionally 


*It  will  be  noted  that  the  bishops  cannot  arrest  a  statutory  action 
of  the  General  Conference,  as  could  be  done  were  the  power  given  them 
a  real  veto. 


110 


History  of  Methodism. 


adopted,  under  which  lay  representation  had  been  incorporated 
as  a  principle  of  the  constitution — namely,  that  laymen  were 
to  be  permitted  to  "participate  in  all  the  business  of  the  Con- 
ference except  such  as  involves  ministerial  character."  On  this 
ground  they  interposed  their  objection,  and,  the  Conference  not 
dissenting,  the  work  of  revision  went  for  naught.  And  here  it 
should  be  noted  that  a  majority  vote  on  a  constitutional  ques- 
tion is  not  a  vote  in  fact,  and  therefore  the  action  of  the  bish- 
ops is  only  to  call  attention  to  the  defect.  Should  the  Confer- 
ence thereupon  give  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote,  the  legisla- 
tion is  put  in  normal  course  and  goes  to  the  Annual  Confer- 
ences. 

Repeated  references  have  been  made  in  this  history  to  what 
has  become  technically  and  historically  known  in  the  Ameri- 
can Methodist  Churches  as  "federation."  A  succinct  account 
of  its  rise  and  progress  will  here  fall  into  a  proper  relation. 
Almost  at  the  close  of  the  War  between  the  States  efforts 
at  Methodist  rapprochement  were  begun.  As  has  been  seen, 
the  sentiment  wras  much  accelerated  by  the  events  attending  and 
following  the  Centenary  Conference,  held  in  1884;  but  it  was 
ten  years  later,  and  at  the  session  of  the  Southern  General 
Conference,  that  the  matter  took  shape  in  conventional  action. 
That  body,  after  reciting  the  recommendations  made  by  the 
second  Ecumenical  Conference,  held  in  1801,  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions : 

Resolved  oy  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  now  in  session:  1.  That,  while  we  do  not  in  the  least  recog- 
nize the  Ecumenical  Conference  as  having  any  legislative  power,  the 
bishops  be  requested  to  appoint  a  Commission  on  Federation  consisting 
of  three  bishops,  three  ministers,  and  three  laymen,  and  that  the  Secre- 
tary be  instructed  to  notify  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  of  this  action  and  to  request  it  to  appoint  a  similar 
commission. 

2.  That  this  commission  shall  have  power  to  enter  into  negotiations 
with  said  similar  commission  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  if 
one  shall  be  appointed,  and  with  similar  commissions  from  other  Meth- 
odist bodies,  with  a  view  to  abating  hurtful  competitions  and  the  waste 
of  men  and  money  in  home  and  foreign  fields. 

3.  That  any  arrangements  which  such  commission  may  make  shall  be 
reported  to  the  next  General  Conference  for  adoption,  alteration,  or  re- 
jection. 


Federation — Fj,r  changes  of  Fields. 


117 


The  commission  appointed  under  this  order  consisted  of  the 
following-named  members:  Bishops  Granbery,  Hargrove,  Dun- 
can; Revs.  E.  E.  Hose,  George  G.  N.  MacDonell,  J.  H.  Dye; 
Judge  Walter  Clark,  R.  W.  Jones,  and  Asa  Holt. 

The  Church  in  the  North  responded  to  this  invitation  by 
appointing  at  its  session  in  1890  the  following-named  commis- 
sioners: Bishops  S.  M.  Merrill,  W.  X.  Ninde,  and  J.  N.  Fitz- 
Gerald;  Revs.  R.  J.  Cooke,  J.  F.  Goucher,  L.  B.  Wilson;  Thomas 
H.  Murray  and  R.  T.  Miller.  The  Joint  Commission  met  in 
Foundry  Church,  Washington,  D.  C,  January  7,  1898.  After 
two  days  of  deliberation,  the  commission  voted  to  recommend 
"joint  administration  of  publishing  interests  in  China  and 
Japan";  "a  common  order  of  public  worship";  "that  where 
either  Church  is  doing  the  work  expected  of  Methodism  the 
other  Church  shall  not  organize  a  society  nor  erect  a  church 
building  until  the  bishop  having  jurisdiction  in  the  work  shall 
be  consulted  and  his  approval  obtained";  the  transfer  of  a 
minister  from  one  Church  to  the  other  "without  the  formality 
of  having  his  orders  recognized"  ;  consideration  of  "authorita- 
tive regulations"  of  Epworth  League  conventions. 

With  slight  alterations,  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Church,  North,  adopted  these  recommendations,  simply  adding 
the  advice  of  the  presiding  elders  and  the  preachers  in  charge 
to  that  of  the  bishop  in  the  case  of  proposed  duplication  of 
the  Churches. 

The  recommendations  of  the  commission  bore  early  and  his- 
toric fruit.  In  1901  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Church, 
North,  transferred  its  work  in  Brazil  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Church,  South.  To  that  Church  also  fell  the  island  of 
Cuba,  while  the  island  of  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippine  Archi- 
pelago went  to  the  Mission  Board  of  the  Church,  North. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  held  in  1902  by  formal  action  approved  and  adopted 
"the  acts  passed  by  the  Joint  Commission  on  Federation  of 
the  two  Churches"  and  recognized  those  that  had  been  "adopted 
by  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
as  having  the  force  of  law."  The  same  Conference  continued  the 
commission  through  the  ensuing  quadrennium.  The  spirit  and 
letter  of  this  action  were  fully  met  by  the  General  Conference 


118 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  which  convened  in  1908. 
The  sentiments  of  the  Church,  South,  regarding  rival  Church 
enterprises  were  cordially  accepted,  and  the  adjustment  of  such 
cases  was  left  to  the  bishop  in  charge.  The  commission  of  the 
Church,  North,  was  also  continued  through  the  quadrennium. 

The  Joint  Commission  met  in  Cincinnati  in  March,  1910, 
when  a  most  important  step  was  taken — namely,  that  of  or- 
ganizing a  Federal  Council  for  Methodism,  the  first  dim  out- 
lines of  the  long-hoped-for  organic  reunion  of  the  two  Connec- 
tions. This  Council  was  to  be  given  "final  power  to  hear  and 
determine,  without  appeal  from  its  decisions,  all  cases  of  con- 
flict or  misunderstanding  between  the  two  branches  of  Meth- 
odism." The  charter  of  this  Council  as  first  adopted  by  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Church,  South,  in  1910,  and  two 
years  later  by  that  of  the  Church  in  the  North,  is,  "in  language 
identical,"  as  follows: 

Said  Federal  Council  shall  be  intrusted  with  advisory  powers  in 
regard  to  world-wide  Christian  education  and  the  evangelization  of  the 
unchurched  masses,  and  also  shall  have  full  power  to  hear  and  finally 
determine,  without  appeal  from  its  decisions,  all  cases  of  conflict  or 
misunderstanding  between  the  two  branches  of  Methodism.  This  Fed- 
eral Council  shall  consist  of  eighteen  members,  equally  divided  between 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  The  membership  of  the  Council  shall  be  as  follows:  Six  bish- 
ops, six  traveling  preachers,  and  six  laymen.  The  nine  members  from 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  shall  be  elected  quadrennially 
by  the  General  Conference  upon  nomination  by  the  Committee  on  Church 
Relations.  Vacancies  occurring  during  the  quadrennium  shall  be  filled 
by  our  commissioners.  Annual  Conferences  shall  have  authority  to  ap- 
point local  commissions  on  federation,  to  meet  with  similar  commis- 
sions from  a  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to  hear 
and  determine  cases  of  local  irritation  and  conflict.  Said  local  com- 
missions shall  have  advisory  power.  All  cases  which  fail  of  settlement 
shall  be  carried  to  the  Federal  Council  for  final  adjudication. 

At  a  session  of  the  Federal  Council  held  in  Nashville,  Tenn., 
January  21,  1914,  rules  were  adopted  both  for  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Council  and  for  the  settlement  of  issues  and  causes 
in  the  Annual  Conferences.  The  Council  consists  of  six 
bishops,  six  traveling  preachers,  and  six  laymen,  equally  di- 
vided between  the  two  Churches.  It  is  charged  with  advisory 
powers  in  regard  to  world-wide  missions,  Christian  education, 


Union — Plan  of  Procedure. 


119 


and  the  evangelization  of  the  unchurched  masses;  and  it  also 
has  power  to  hear  and  finally  determine,  without  appeal  from 
its  decision,  all  cases  of  conflict  or  misunderstanding  between 
the  two  branches  of  Methodism. 

The  sentiment  of  unity  and  agreement,  if  not  the  actual 
march  toward  union,  advanced  rapidly.  A  meeting  of  the  Joint 
Commission  was  held  in  Baltimore  in  December,  1910,  at  which 
sitting  appeared  an  authorized  delegation  from  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church.  It  was  understood  that  the  topic  of  con- 
versation and  the  subject  of  prospective  action  were  to  be  the 
organic  union  of  the  Churches,  the  Church  in  the  North  and  the 
Protestant  Church  having  through  their  General  Conferences 
requested  this  moot.  The  commission  of  the  Church,  North, 
therefore,  submitted  the  following  statement — viz. : 

During  the  session  of  our  General  Conference  held  in  this  city  in 
1908  a  commission  was  appointed,  with  our  Senior  Bishop  as  chairman, 
to  visit  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 
then  in  session  at  Pittsburgh,  bearing  a  cordial  invitation  to  that  body 
to  unite  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The  commission  was 
graciously  welcomed,  and  a  delegation  was  sent  in  return  to  make  reply 
to  the  overtures  which  had  been  so  cordially  forwarded.  Subsequently 
the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  directed  its 
Commission  on  Federation  to  invite  the  Evangelical  Association,  the 
United  Brethren,  and  such  other  branches  of  Methodism  as  it  might 
believe  to  be  sympathetic,  to  confer  through  similar  commissions  con- 
cerning federation  or  organic  union  as,  in  the  judgment  of  the  said 
Churches,  respectively,  might  be  most  desirable,  and  to  report  to  the 
General  Conference  of  1912.  .  .  . 

It  is  our  conviction  that  the  time  has  come  when  it  is  due  to  our 
people,  as  well  as  to  an  interested  public,  that  the  desirability  and  prac- 
ticability of  organic  union  shall  be  discussed  between  us;  and  if  the  pre- 
ponderance of  judgment  be  found  against  either  the  desirability  or  prac- 
ticability of  organic  union,  that  the  reasons  be  clearly  set  before  our 
Churches  in  order  that,  being  informed  as  to  the  same,  they  may  the 
more  intelligently  judge  the  work  of  their  commissions  and  conform 
their  own  utterances  and  actions  to  the  conditions  as  thus  developed. 
We  believe  they  have  a  right  to  this  knowledge  and  that  we  owe  it 
to  them  to  give  them  this  opportunity  to  measure  the  difficulties  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  to  remove  them  or  adjust  themselves  to  actual  con- 
ditions. 

The  submission  of  this  paper  was  followed  by  "a  long  and 
searching  debate."   At  the  close  of  the  debate  a  select  commit- 


ll>0 


History  of  Methodism. 


tee  of  three  from  each  commission  was  appointed  to  prepare 
"A  Plan  of  Procedure."  This  committee  reported,  declaring 
the  Churches,  North  and  South,  to  have  had  "a  common  origin 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  organized  in  1784,"  and 
to  be  "joint  heirs  of  the  traditions  and  doctrinal  standards  of 
the  fathers" ;  that  "the  fathers  settled  the  issues  of  the  past  con- 
scientiously for  themselves,"  and  that  it  "appears  to  be  our  im- 
perative duty  earnestly  to  consider  the  expediency  and  practica- 
bility of  some  form  of  unification."   It  was,  therefore,  agreed  : 

That  a  joint  committee  of  nine,  three  from  each  commission  here 
represented,  be  appointed  to  consider  the  causes  which  produce  friction 
and  waste  and  injury  rather  than  promote  the  common  cause — namely, 
the  spreading  of  Scriptural  holiness  through  these  and  other  lands  and, 
if  found  practicable,  to  bring  to  this  Joint  Commission  a  plan  for  sub- 
mission to  the  General  Conference  and  people  of  the  respective  Churches, 
said  plan  to  provide  for  such  unification  through  reorganization  of  the 
Methodist  Churches  concerned  as  shall  insure  unity  of  purpose,  admin- 
istration, evangelistic  effort,  and  all  other  functions  for  which  our  Meth- 
odism has  stood  from  the  beginning. 

This  "Plan"  being  adopted,  the  following-named  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  as  the  "Committee  of  Nine" — viz.: 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Bishop  Earl  Cranston,  Dr.  J.  F. 
Goucher,  R.  T.  Miller,  LL.D. ;  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 
Dr.  T.  H.  Lewis,  Dr.  M.  S.  Jennings,  Mr.  S.  R.  Harris;  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  Dr.  F.  M. 
Thomas,  and  Hon.  M.  L.  Walton.  The  Committee  of  Nine 
met  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  January  18,  1911.  Each  section  of 
the  commission  submitted  a  statement  as  representative  of  the 
views  of  its  particular  Church  concerning  the  plans  of  unifi- 
cation which  seemed  feasible  and  desirable.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Churches,  North  and  South,  amended  their  first 
statements  with  later  drafts.  These,  with  the  statement  sub- 
mitted by  the  representatives  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  made  five  separate  documents  to  be  considered.  The 
final  report  of  the  whole  committee  to  be  made  to  the  Joint 
Commission  recommended  that  the  three  Chnrches  be  reor- 
ganized into  one  Connection,  to  be  known  as  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America  or  the  Methodist  Church  of 
America;  that  the  reorganized  Church  have  common  articles 
of  faith,  common  conditions  of  membership,  a  common  hym- 


A  Historic  fa  per. 


nal,  catechism,  and  ritual;  that  the  governing  power  be  vested 
in  a  General  Conference  and  three  or  four  Quadrennial  Con- 
ferences; that  the  General  Conference  consist  of  two  houses; 
that  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  choose  the  bishops ;  that  the 
Annual  Conference  be  preserved ;  that  neither  the  General  Con- 
ference nor  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  be  left  to  interpret 
the  constitutionality  of  their  own  acts. 

The  Joint  Commission  on  Federation  met  in  Chattanooga, 
Tenn.,  May  10,  1911,  and,  after  discussing  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  Committee  of  Nine,  adopted  the  following,  which 
is  destined  to  become  a  historic  paper  in  Methodism : 

1.  We  suggest  as  a  plan  of  reorganization  the  merging  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  into  one  Church,  to  be  known  as  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America  or  the  Methodist  Church  in 
America. 

.2.  We  suggest  that  this  Church  shall  have  throughout  common  arti- 
cles of  faith,  common  conditions  of  membership,  a  common  hymnal,  a 
common  catechism,  and  a  common  ritual. 

3.  We  suggest  that  the  governing  power  of  the  reorganized  Church 
shall  be  vested  in  one  General  Conference  and  three  or  four  Quadren- 
nial Conferences,  both  General  and  Quadrennial  Conferences  to  exer- 
cise their  powers  under  constitutional  provisions  and  restrictions,  the 
General  Conference  to  have  full  legislative  power  over  all  matters  dis- 
tinctively connectional,  and  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  to  have  full 
legislative  power  over  distinctively  local  affairs.  We  suggest  that  the 
colored  membership  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church,  and  such  organizations  of  colored  Methodists  as  may 
enter  into  agreement  with  them,  may  be  constituted  and  recognized  as 
one  of  the  Quadrennial  or  Jurisdictional  Conferences  of  the  proposed 
reorganization. 

4.  We  suggest  that  the  General  Conference  shall  consist  of  two  houses, 
each  house  to  be  composed  of  equal  numbers  of  ministerial  and  lay 
delegates.  The  delegates  in  the  first  house  shall  be  apportioned  equally 
among  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  and  elected  under  equitable  rules 
to  be  provided  therefor.  The  ministerial  delegates  in  the  second  house 
shall  be  elected  by  the  ministerial  members  in  the  Annual  Conferences 
and  the  lay  delegates  by  the  laity  within  the  Annual  Conferences  under 
equitable  rules  to  be  provided  therefor.  Each  Annual  Conference  shall 
have  at  least  one  ministerial  and  one  lay  delegate.  The  larger  Confer- 
ences shall  have  one  additional  ministerial  and  one  additional  lay  dele- 
gate for  every    ministerial  members  of  the  Conference,  also  an 

additional  ministerial  and  lay  delegate  where  there  is  an  excess  of  two- 


122 


History  of  Methodism. 


thirds  of  the  fixed  rate  of  representation.  All  legislation  of  the  General 
Conference  shall  require  the  concurrent  action  of  the  two  houses. 

5.  We  suggest  that  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  shall  be  composed 
of  an  equal  number  of  ministerial  and  lay  delegates,  to  be  chosen  by  the 
Annual  Conferences  within  their  several  jurisdictions  according  to  an 
equitable  plan  to  be  provided  therefor. 

6.  We  suggest  that  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  shall  fix  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Annual  Conferences  within  their  respective  jurisdictions, 
and  that  the  Annual  Conferences  shall  be  composed  of  all  traveling 
preachers  in  full  connection  therewith  and  one  lay  representative  from 
each  pastoral  charge. 

7.  We  suggest  that  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  shall  name  the  bish- 
ops from  their  several  jurisdictions,  the  same  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
first  house  of  the  General  Conference. 

8.  We  suggest  that  neither  the  General  Conference  nor  any  of  the 
Quadrennial  Conferences  be  invested  with  final  authority  to  interpret 
the  constitutionality  of  its  own  actions. 

In  1912  the  General  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  both  bodies  hav- 
ing met  in  that  year,  each  ''approved  the  work  of  its  commis- 
sion in  moving  along  the  lines  indicated,  but  did  not  take 
definite  action  on  the  suggestions  looking  toward  reorganiza- 
tion/' The  General  Conference  of  the  Church,  South,  however, 
met  the  situation  squarely  in  the  following  action  taken  at 
its  sitting  in  Oklahoma  City  in  May,  1911 : 

1.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  considers  the  plan  out- 
lined in  the  suggestions  that  were  adopted  by  the  Joint  Commission 
representing  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  reported  to 
the  General  Conferences  of  their  respective  Churches,  as  tentative,  but, 
nevertheless,  as  containing  the  basic  principles  of  a  genuine  unification 
of  the  Methodist  bodies  in  the  United  States  and  especially  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  by 
the  method  of  reorganization. 

2.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  regards  the  unification  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  the  plan  proposed  by  the 
Joint  Commission  on  Federation  as  feasible  and  desirable,  and  hereby 
declares  itself  in  favor  of  the  unification  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  accordance  with 
this  general  plan  of  reorganization,  and  in  favor  of  the  unification  of 
all  or  any  Methodist  bodies  that  accept  this  proposed  plan  after  it  has 
been  accepted  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.    However,  we  recom- 


Federation  and  Unification. 


12:\ 


mend  that  the  colored  membership  of  the  various  Methodist  bodies  be 
formed  into  an  independent  organization  holding  fraternal  relations 
with  the  reorganized  and  united  Church. 

The  results  of  the  application  of  the  plans  of  federation 
have  not  been  as  large  as  was  once  hoped.  The  Federal  Coun- 
cil has  held  but  few  meetings,  and  at  no  time  has  its  voice  car- 
ried any  certain  authority.  The  whole  scheme  of  federation, 
however,  has  been  overshadowed  by  the  larger  question  of  uni- 
fication, which  stands  like  a  balanced  tide,  to  ebb  or  to  flow  in 
answer  to  conditions  now  unseen.  A  review  of  the  action  of 
the  1916  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Church, 
North,  remains  to  be  added  to  this  record. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Origin  of  Specific  Legislation — Kelley-Hargrove  Case — District  Con- 
ference Empowered  to  License  Preachers — Insurance — Hague  Tribu- 
nal— Basis  of  Representation — Evangelism — Fraternal  Addresses — 
Elections — Necrology,  North  and  South — General  Conference  in  the 
North — Women  Delegates — Seniority — Elections — Publication  Crux — 
Deaconess  Work — Church  in  Canada — British  Conference — Difficult 
Social  Problems  —  Plymouth — Junior  Societies — Depression — Peter 
McKenzie — Irish  Conference — Dr.  McCutcheon — South  Africa — Aus- 
tralia— 1894-1897  (Concluded). 

MUCH  of  the  legislation  of  the  Methodist  Churches  has 
grown  out  of  the  difficulties  arising  in  the  processes  of 
administration.  Previous  to  1894  it  was  the  custom  in  the 
Southern  Church  for  the  presiding  bishop  to  appoint  the  trial 
committee  in  the  Annual  Conferences.  At  the  Memphis  ses- 
sion (1894)  a  famous  trial  case  came  up  for  review.  This  was 
known  as  the  Kelley-Hargrove  case.  Dr.  D.  C.  Kelley,  who 
had  served  in  many  high  stations  in  the  Church  and  who  had 
won  distinction  as  a  Confederate  soldier,  became  a  candidate 
for  Governor  of  the  State  of  Tennessee  in  1892  on  the  plat- 
form of  the  Prohibition  party.  He  procured  a  supply  for  his 
appointment  as  a  pastor  in  the  Conference,  but  it  was  alleged 
that  he  had  "left  his  charge"  without  having  been  canonic-ally 
excused.  The  cause  was,  therefore,  brought  before  the  Con- 
ference, and  the  bishop,  against  certain  formal  protests,  ap- 
pointed the  committees  called  for  by  the  Book  of  Discipline. 
The  case  having  come  to  trial,  Dr.  Kelley  was  temporarily  sus- 
pended from  the  functions  of  the  ministry.  From  this  verdict 
he  took  an  appeal  to  the  General  Conference,  charging  mal- 
administration against  the  bishop.  Both  the  Committee  on 
Episcopacy  and  the  Committee  on  Appeals  sat  many  days  dis- 
cussing those  features  of  the  case  over  which  they  had  re- 
spective jurisdiction.  The  Committee  on  Episcopacy  found 
the  bishop  "guilty  of  no  intentional  wrong."  and  so  passed 
his  character.  The  Committee  on  Appeals,  reviewing  the  legal 
aspects  of  the  case,  gave  a  verdict  for  Df.  Kelley,  reversing 
the  action  of  the  Tennessee  Conference  which  had  suspended 
(124) 


Kelley-Har grove  Case — Acts  of  (Jem  nil  Conference.  L26 


him.  As  a  result  of  the  issues  of  this  case  and  the  discussions 
attending  its  hearing,  the  General  Conference  passed  a  law 
giving  to  the  x\nnual  Conferences  the  right  to  name  trial  and 
other  committees.  Such  is  often  the  influence  of  incidental 
hapi>enings. 

Another  important  act  of  legislation  completed  at  this  Con- 
ference transferred  the  licensing  and  reports  of  local  preach- 
ers from  the  Quarterly  Conference  to  the  District  Conference. 
Missionary  secretaries  for  the  Annual  Conferences  were  au- 
thorized, thus  increasing  the  means  of  connectional  appeal  tq 
the  congregation.  Plans  for  the  incorporation  and  for  the  bet- 
ter protection  through  insurance  of  Church  property  were 
adopted.  As  indicative  of  the  world  sympathies  of  the  delega- 
tions, it  may  be  noted  that  the  Conference  took  strong  ground 
in  favor  of  international  arbitration  and  especially  committed 
itself  to  the  principles  represented  by  the  Hague  Tribunal. 

The  basis  of  representation  in  the  General  Conference  was 
changed  from  one  for  each  thirty-six  members  of  the  Annual 
Conference  to  one  for  each  forty-eight  members,  the  present 
ratio.  As  an  illustration  of  the  increase  in  the  itinerant  ranks, 
it  may  be  remarked  here  that  the  membership  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1898,  consisting  of  the  first  delegations  to  be 
returned  under  the  new  ratio,  numbered  four  hundred  and 
thirty-seven ;  while  that  of  1914,  sixteen  years  later  and  under 
the  decreased  ratio,  numbered  five  hundred  and  thirty-five. 
The  Episcopal  Address  at  the  Memphis  sitting  reported  a  net 
increase  of  170,179  in  the  membership  of  the  Connection  for  the 
four  years  from  1890  to  1894. 

The  question  of  evangelism  had  become  acute  during  the 
quadrennium  preceding  this  session.  Unauthorized  evangelism 
had  greatly  increased  in  connection  with  the  "holiness"  agita- 
tion, to  which  attention  has  already  been  called.  "The  signal 
success  of  a  few  evangelists  of  burning  zeal,  effective  speech, 
and  skill  in  leadership"  had  led  a  multitude  of  less  competent 
and  sometimes  quite  incompetent  men  to  enter  the  revivalistic 
field.  The  results  were  generally  confusing,  not  seldom  ex- 
hibiting a  schismatic  and  divisive  spirit.  A  remedy  was 
sought.  The  bishops  recommended  a  strong  rule  against  the 
invasion  of  parishes  by  unauthorized  evangelists.  Legislation 


12G 


History  of  Methodism. 


looking  to  this  end  was  introduced,  but  the  famous  statute 
known  as  "Paragraph  301/'  meant  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
the  pastor  against  such  invasion,  was  not  enacted  until  1898. 
In  recent  years  the  Church  has  fully  recognized  the  principle 
of  special  evangelism  and  has  put  the  evangelists  under  the 
direction  of  the  Home  Department  of  the  General  Board  of 
Missions. 

The  fraternal  addresses  made  before  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1894  were  especially  felicitous  and  further  marked  the 
advance  of  inter-Methodist  agreement.  Dr.  John  F.  Goucher 
and  Dr.  Henry  Wade  Rodgers  represented  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  addresses  memorable  for  their  cordial  fra- 
ternity. In  the  course  of  his  address  Dr.  Goucher  said :  "A 
Pan-American  Methodist  Conference,  large  enough  to  be  rep- 
resentative but  small  enough  to  be  deliberative,  advisory  but 
without  legislative  functions,  meeting  at  stated  times,  might 
be  helpful  in  securing  a  comity  of  relations."  This  was  clear- 
ly prophetic  of  the  Federal  Council  and  possibly  of  a  yet-to-be- 
realized  device  of  Pan-Methodist  administration.  Dr.  Rodgers 
said:  "As  we  have  rejoiced  with  you  in  your  prosperity,  so 
have  we  mourned  with  you  in  the  hours  of  your  sorrow.  A 
great  man  fell  in  Israel  when  Holland  Nimmons  McTyeire 
was  gathered  to  his  fathers.  As  you  shed  tears  over  the  bier 
of  Matthew  Simpson,  we  wept  over  the  grave  of  McTyeire." 
Dr.  Alexander  Sutherland,  who  represented  the  Church  of 
Canada,  said:  "It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  every  age 
needs  a  new  gospel.  Christ  is  the  contemporary  of  every  age, 
and  human  thought  and  progress  never  outrun  his  teachings. 
A  recognition  of  this  fact  would  save  many  so-called  leaders 
of  thought  from  perpetual  blunders  and  many  a  minister  from 
the  fatal  mistake  of  preaching  an  emasculated  gospel  under 
the  delusion  that  he  is  improving  upon  the  old  truth."  Dr.  T. 
Bowman  Stephenson,  though  not  an  official  visitor,  spoke  for 
the  mother  Church  in  England.  "I  venture  to  express  the 
hope,"  he  said,  "that  no  future  General  Conference  of  this  great 
Church  will  meet  without  some  British  voice,  duly  accredited 
for  the  purpose,  bringing  to  you  a  message  of  respect  and  af- 
fection from  the  mother  Conference."  In  addition  to  Dr. 
Stephenson's  speech,  a  written  communication  from  the  Wes- 


Fraternal  Messengers — Elections — Necrology.  127 


leyan  Conference  was  read.  Bishop  Galloway,  fraternal  mes- 
senger to  that  body,  reported,  as  did  also  Dr.  R.  N.  Bledd, 
messenger  to  the  Church  of  Canada,  and  Dr.  J.  J.  Tigert,  mes- 
senger to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  Stales 
of  America. 

The  connectional  elections  for  the  quadrennium  returned 
the  following  selections — viz.:  J.  D.  Barbee,  Book  Agent;  D. 
M.  Smith,  Assistant;  E.  E.  Hoss,  Editor  Christian  Advocate; 
J.  J.  Tigert,  Book  Editor;  W.  D.  Kirkland,  Sunday  School 
Editor;  H.  C.  Morrison  and  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Missionary  Sec- 
retaries; David  Morton,  Church  Extension  Secretary;  S.  A. 
Steel,  Secretary  Epworth  League ;  and  W.  W.  Smith,  Secretary 
Board  of  Education.  R.  P.  Wilson,  Editor  Pacific  Methodist 
Advocate,  was  selected  by  the  Book  Committee. 

The  necrology  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South  for  the  quad- 
rennium of  1894-97,  inclusive,  contained  not  a  few  distin- 
guished names.  For  the  first  the  Church  was  called  upon  to 
mourn  the  death  of  one  of  the  greatest  leaders  known  to  its 
history,  Bishop  Atticus  Greene  Haygood.  Bishop  Haygood  was 
born  in  Watkinsville,  Ga.,  November  19,  1839.  Both  his  father 
and  his  mother  were  people  of  education  and  of  first-class  so- 
cial extraction.  In  the  early  youth  of  their  son  they  removed 
to  Atlanta,  where,  when  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  the  future 
bishop,  having  subscribed  twenty-five  dollars  toward  the  erec- 
tion of  the  first  Trinity  Church  building  in  the  capital  and  not 
having  the  funds  to  pay  it  when  due,  worked  out  the  sum  in 
carrying  the  hod  and  otherwise  assisting  the  builders.  In 
1856  he  entered  Emory  College  (now  Emory  University)  in 
the  sophomore  class,  graduating  in  1859,  and  immediately  be- 
gan to  serve  as  an  itinerant  preacher.  About  the  time  of  his 
graduation  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mollie  Yarbrough,  who 
survived  him  a  number  of  years.  Although  his  Alma  Mater 
at  that  time  had  no  theological  course,  he  privately  pursued 
theology  with  such  diligence  and  devotion  that  at  the  time  of 
his  admission  into  the  Conference  his  preparation  for  the  min- 
istry was  pronounced  to  oe  "comprehensive  and  thorough. " 
From  the  beginning  he  was  theologian  and  preacher.  Besides 
these  distinctions,  he  was  master  in  other  spheres.  As  edu- 
cator, editor,  lecturer,  missionary  leader,  and  social  reformer, 


128 


History  of  Methodism, 


he  fairly  overtopped  the  men  of  his  fellowship.  For  eleven 
years  he  filled  the  leading  stations  and  districts  in  Georgia, 
when  in  1870  he  was  elected  Sunday  School  Editor  for  the 
Church.  He  reorganized  and  rehabilitated  this  most  impor- 
tant connectional  department,  languishing  from  1he  destructive 
effects  of  the  war.  During  his  Sunday  school  editorship  he 
served  as  Associate  Missionary  Secretary  and  stirred  the 
Church  with  his  appeals  for  nobler  endeavors  in  that  cause. 
After  five  years  of  brilliant  service  in  this  dual  responsibility, 
he  resigned  to  become  President  of  Emory  College.  It  was 
here  that  he  did  his  greatest  wTork  and  during  his  ten  years 
of  presidency  attracted  toward  himself  the  religious  eyes  of  the 
whole  nation.  Enlisting  the  interest  of  men  of  philanthropy 
and  wealth,  especially  one,  Mr.  George  I.  Seney,  of  New"  York, 
he  equipped  and  endowed  not  only  Emory,  but  Wesley  an  Col- 
lege also,  in  a  way  that  made  them  incalculably  potent  in- 
fluences for  the  future.  Through  tireless  effort  and  much  self- 
denial  he  maintained  at  Emory  College  a  continuous  company 
of  poor  young  men  whom  he  put  through  the  classes  and  gave 
to  his  country  and  his  Church.  It  was  during  this  period 
(1882)  that  he  was  first  called  to  the  episcopacy  and  declined 
consecration  because  he  could  not  see  the  way  to  leave  his 
"boys"  and  the  school.  In  1885  he  accepted  the  agency  of  the 
Slater  Educational  Fund,  but  retained  an  emeritus  relation 
to  the  college.  In  this  position  his  influence  so  widened  that 
on  all  sides  he  was  recognized  as  the  most  conspicuous  and 
potent  personality  in  any  department  of  life  in  the  whole 
South.  His  book,  "Our  Brother  in  Black,"  written  about  this 
time,  did  more  than  any  single  essay  of  the  post-bellum  era 
to  bring  to  both  sections  sanity  of  thinking  concerning  the 
negro  problem.  This  book  enjoyed  an  immense  circulation 
and  may  very  well  be  spoken  of  as  a  national  textbook  for 
that  time.  Upon  the  merits  of  another  volume,  "The  Man 
of  Galilee,"  circulated  in  English  and  Spanish,  will  chiefly 
rest  his  fame  as  a  theologian  and  an  author.  When  the  moun- 
tain-piled tomes  of  German  criticism  have  melted  away  under 
the  shining  of  the  sun  of  the  new  age,  "The  Man  of  Galilee'' 
may  still  be  read  with  joy  and  profit.  In  1800  Dr.  Haygood 
was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  for  the  second  time,  and,  feeling 


Hayyood — Anderson — Clark. 


129 


that  his  educational  obligations  had  been  met,  he  accepted  the 
post ;  but  his  episcopal  career  was  comparatively  short.  After 
four  or  five  years,  his  health  began  to  fail.  The  day  labors 
and  midnight  toils  of  former  years  began  to  take  toll  of  his 
strength.  A  paralysis  suddenly  developed,  and  the  strong 
frame  was  smitten  like  an  oak  by  the  lightnings.  On  .January 
21,  1890,  he  died,  and  was  gathered  to  his  pest  in  the  cemetery 
at  the  village  of  Oxford,  the  place  which  he  loved  more  than 
all  the  dwellings  of  Israel. 

William  D.  Anderson,  D.D.,  was  born  in  Marietta,  Ga.,  June 
24,  1839,  the  birth  year  of  Bishop  Haygood.  His  father  was 
Judge  of  the  State  Superior  Court,  and  he  was  himself  edu- 
cated for  the  law,  graduating  from  the  State  University  in 
1859.  He  served  with  distinction  in  the  Confederate  army, 
successfully  entered  into  politics  in  the  years  immediately  fol- 
lowing, becoming  Speaker  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  General 
Assembly  and  being  otherwise  honored  by  his  colleagues.  In 
1876,  having  meditated  deeply  his  course,  he  resigned  all  po- 
litical responsibilities  and  joined  the  North  Georgia  Confer: 
ence,  in  which  he  served  as  pastor  of  the  first  Churches  in 
Athens,  Rome,  Atlanta,  and  elsewhere,  as  also  on  the  leading 
districts.  He  was  prominent  in  the  General  Conference  and 
in  the  leadership  of  the  Annual  Conference.  His  death  oc- 
curred in  December,  1894. 

In  the  same  year,  on  September  4,  died  James  O.  A.  Clark, 
D.D.,  who  was  born  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  October  6,  1827.  Dr. 
Clark  was  educated  at  Andover  College  and  Brown  University, 
having  graduated  with  distinction  from  the  latter  school  under 
the  presidency  of  that  eminent  educator,  Dr.  Wayland.  He 
too  was  destined  for  the  law ;  but,  having  been  converted  in  a 
great  revival  in  1853,  he  heard  a  call  to  the  ministry  and  joined 
the  Georgia  Conference  in  1854.  He  enjoyed  a  reputation  for 
consecration  and  devotion  to  his  calling  and  also  was  regarded 
as  the  best-educated  man  in  his  Conference.  His  scholarship 
was  classic;  he  knew  the  Greek  Testament  by  heart.  During 
his  ministry  he  wrote  a  number  of  pleasing  and  instructive 
books.  "For  forty  years  he  was  a  most  important  factor  in  the 
growth  and  development  of  Methodism  in  Georgia." 

Though  not  one  of  the  greatest,  measured  by  the  ordinary 
9 


130 


History  of  Methodism. 


canon  of  greatness,  yet  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  known 
to  the  Church  in  the  Southwest  was  Homer  S.  Thrall,  D.D.,  a 
member  of  the  West  Texas  Conference,  who  died  October  12, 
1894.  Born  in  Vermont  December  19,  1819,  he  was  converted 
at  an  early  age  and  in  a  time  when  experience  in  Methodism 
was  paramount.  His  education  was  received  at  the  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University.  In  1840  he  joined  the  Ohio  Conference; 
but  when  in  1842  the  republic  of  Texas  was  opened  to  the 
missionaries,  he  transferred  to  that  country  and  became  one 
of  the  most  indomitable  of  the  band  of  evangelists  who  planted 
the  gospel  on  the  frontier  bordered  by  the  Rio  Grande.  Though 
never  for  a  day  out  of  the  itinerancy  during  his  nearly  fifty 
years  of  active  life  in  the  West,  he  yet  found  opportunity  to 
take  legitimate  part  in  the  civic  affairs  of  the  country,  while 
preaching  the  kingdom  of  spiritual  things.  He  knew,  and  was 
on  intimate  and  oftentimes  advisory  relations  with,  the  fathers 
of  the  republic  of  Texas  and  the  leaders  of  the  State — Houston, 
Rusk,  Lamar,  and  others.  His  "History  of  Texas"  was,  up  to 
the  time  of  his  death,  a  standard  in  the  schools  and  administra- 
tive offices  of  the  State;  while  his  "History  of  Methodism  in 
Texas"  must  be  had  in  requisition  by  wThoever  in  future  shall 
write  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  Southwest.  He  was  a 
member  of  several  General  Conferences  and  exercised  a  wide 
connectional  influence. 

Seldom  has  the  Church  sustained  a  greater  loss  or  felt  more 
certainly  that  loss  than  in  the  death  of  William  P.  Harrison, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  which  occurred  at  Columbus,  Ga.,  February  7. 
lSOo.  A  man  of  large  and  varied  learning,  he  is  yet  to  be  put 
in  that  class  of  self-taught  men  of  whom  Methodism  knows 
so  much  and  of  whom  she  has  given  so  many  to  history  in  the 
ranks  of  her  itinerant  ministry.  In  the  case  of  Dr.  Harrison 
it  seems  all  but  impossible  that  one  should  attain  to  the  variety 
and  accuracy  of  such  learning  as  he  was  known  to  possess 
through  methods  of  self-help  alone.  His  early  educational 
advantages  were  few.  He  spent  a  brief  time  at  Emory  Col- 
lege, only  long  enough  to  distress  his  own  sense  of  lack  and 
yet  long  enough  to  confirm  his  purpose  to  pursue  to  the  end. 
Having  entered  the  itinerancy,  from  1850  to  1870  he  Berved 
Churches  in  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  Alabama,  everywhere 


H  arrison — Mc Anally — Rodger  s. 


13] 


leaving  tokens  of  his  power  as  a  preacher.  In  1870  he  was 
elected  editor  of  the  Methodist  Magazine.  In  1878  he  was  ap 
pointed  chaplain  to  Congress,  being  the  third  Southern  Metli- 
odist  minister  to  occupy  that  position.  In  1882  he  was  elected 
Rook  Editor  of  the  Church  and  continued  to  occupy  that  post 
until  failing  health  forced  his  retirement  in  1804.  One  of  his 
earliest  books,  "Theophilus  Walton/'  was  a  Church  classic 
during  the  age  of  doctrinal  controversy.  His  "Living  Christ" 
was  a  volume  which  best  illustrated  his  powers  as  an  author 
and  his  resources  as  a  theologian,  while  his  "Methodist  Union'' 
is  a  book  that  might  profitably  be  read  to-day.  As  an  example 
to  younger  ministers  and  scholars,  the  life  of  Dr.  Harrison  is 
replete  with  inspiration. 

David  R.  McAnally,  D.D.,  was  long  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
connectional  Methodism  in  the  South.  As  pastor,  educator, 
and  editor  he  filled  up  the  days  of  a  career  extending  through 
sixty  and  seven  years.  Born  February  17,  1810,  and  dying  July 
11,  1895,  he  lacked  but  fifteen  and  a  half  years  of  having  lived 
coeval  with  the  entire  nineteenth  century.  For  many  years 
he  was  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate,  in  which 
position  he  was  best  known  to  the  Church.  As  a  preacher  his 
work  was  marked  by  fruitful  results ;  nor  was  he  unknown  in 
the  field  of  authorship.  He  wrote  the  "History  of  Methodism 
in  Missouri,"  but  will  be  longest  remembered  as  the  biographer 
of  Bishop  Enoch  M.  Marvin. 

Another  editor  of  the  Church,  Dr.  Samuel  Rodgers,  of  the 
Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist,  died  within  the  twelve  months 
in  which  occurred  the  death  of  Dr.  McAnally.  Born  July  29, 
1825,  of  Scotch-Irish  parentage,  Dr.  Rodgers  was  brought  up 
in  the  Presbyterian  faith.  Being  converted  in  a  Methodist 
meeting  in  1840,  his  mind  turned  toward  the  ministry,  and  he 
joined  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  1846.  As  pastor  and  as 
chaplain  in  the  Confederate  army  he  made  a  memorable  record. 
In  1808  he  was  stationed  at  Lexington,  Va.,  where  he  became 
a  close  personal  friend  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  the  intimacy 
of  this  friendship  ended  only  with  the  great  soldier's  death. 
It  was  through  the  influence  of  General  Lee  that  Washington 
and  Lee  University  conferred  upon  his  preacher-friend  the  title 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  Dr.  Rodgers  was  six  times,  successively. 


132 


History  of  Methodism. 


made  a  member  of  the  General  Conference.  He  died  in  Balti 
more  November  1,  1894. 

Few  men  in  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Church  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  established  a  more  certain 
reputation  for  pulpit  eloquence  than  did  John  W.  Hanner,  D.D., 
of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  who  died  October  28,  1895.  After 
a  long  career  of  great  usefulness,  his  life  was  temporarily 
clouded  by  reason  of  charges  of  indiscretion  brought  against 
him  in  the  Conference;  but  he  died  assured  of  the  love  and 
veneration  of  his  fellow  churchmen. 

William  D.  Kirkland,  D.D.,  who  died  May  31,  1890,  while 
incumbent  in  the  office  of  connection al  Sunday  School  Editor, 
was  a  man  of  many  gifts.  Graduating  from  Wofford  College 
in  1870,  he  went  almost  immediately  into  the  pastorate,  where, 
with  the  exception  of  a  brief  time  as  professor  in  Columbia 
College,  he  served  until  1885,  when  he  was  elected  editor  of 
the  Southern  Christian  Advocate.  In  1894  he  was  designated 
by  the  General  Conference  to  be  the  editor  of  the  Sunday 
school  periodicals.  He  was  but  forty-seven  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

The  far  Western  work  of  the  Church  throughout  its  history 
has  been  represented  in  its  itinerancy  by  men  of  heroic  mold. 
Perhaps  the  sturdiest  frontiersman  known  to  the  entire  history 
of  Methodism  was  Learner  B.  Stateler,  who  was  born  in  Ohio 
County,  Ky.,  July  7,  1811,  and  who  died  in  Corvallis,  Mont., 
May  1,  1806.  His  greatness  was  that  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
other  wilderness  pioneers  of  the  kingdom  of  God — quenchless 
zeal  and  untiring  self-devotion.  Stateler  joined  the  Kentucky 
Conference  in  1831  and  at  once  responded  as  a  volunteer  for 
service  in  the  then  distant  and  uncultivated  field  of  Missouri. 
During  his  experience  in  that  State  he  held  charges  at  St. 
Louis  and  other  points  and  was  missionary  to  the  Choctaw  In- 
dians. About  1830  he  was  sent  to  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Iowa,  being  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  enter  that  region. 
Here  he  organized  the  beginnings  of  Methodism  west  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi.  For  fourteen  years  thereafter  he  served 
amongst  the  tribes  of  the  Indian  Territory,  assisting  in  the 
organization  of  the  Indian  Mission  Conference.  After  lv"l 
lie  labored  in  the  Kansas  Mission  Conference,  being  there  in 


Stateler — John — Deaths  in  the  North.  133 


the  days  of  the  bitter  border  warfare  of  the  antislavery  con 
icst.  Iii  1862  lie  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  organized 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  Denver  and  amid 
many  sufferings  and  hardships  planted  the  Church  in  the  val- 
leys and  villages  contiguous  thereto.  In  1864,  with  his  family, 
he  started  across  the  mountain  roof  of  the  continent  for  Mon- 
tana, where  again  he  became  the  Church's  pioneer  and  left  as 
a  monument  to  his  zeal  and  devotion  the  congregations  and 
the  Annual  Conference  organization  in  that  land  of  peaks  and 
infant  rivers.  Not  content  with  sowing  here,  he  crossed  the 
farther  Rockies  into  Oregon,  literally  chopping  his  way  through 
the  mountain  chaparral,  and  preached  a  time  in  the  Willamette 
Valley,  thus  practically  belting  the  continent  with  his  mis- 
sionary  labors.  From  Oregon  he  returned  to  Montana,  where 
he  finished  his  course.  He  was  without  the  culture  of  the 
schools,  but  left  an  effective  written  record  of  his  many  labors. 

To  be  placed  in  the  same  category  as  the  name  of  Homer  S. 
Thrall  is  the  name  of  Isaac  G.  John.  Born  in  Indiana  Jan- 
uary 14,  1827,  he  went  to  Texas  in  1845,  entered  the  Confer- 
ence there  in  1847,  and  gave  almost  exactly  fifty  years  to  the 
work  of  an  itinerant.  Though  not  a  man  of  large  learning,  he 
was  yet  possessed  of  fine  natural  endowments,  was  liberally 
informed,  and  was  a  user  of  strong  and  effective  English,  both 
in  speaking  and  writing.  He  rejoiced  in  a  characteristic  Wes- 
leyan  experience  and  was  a  successful  preacher  and  pastor. 
After  twenty  years  of  service  in  circuits  and  stations  and  on 
districts,  in  1866  he  was  made  Editor  of  the  Texas  Christian 
Advocate,  in  which  post  he  served  with  noteworthy  success 
until  1884.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1886  he  was  elected 
Missionary  Secretary.  In  that  office  he  served  acceptably  for 
eight  years,  when  failing  health  made  it  necessary  for  him  to 
retire;  however,  he  continued  to  do  such  light  editorial  work 
as  his  strength  made  possible.   He  died  March  17,  1897. 

The  number  of  deaths  occurring  amongst  the  connectional 
officials  in  the  Church,  North,  during  this  quadrennium  was 
unusually  large.  Dr.  Sanford  Hunt,  Senior  Publishing  Agent, 
died  February  10,  1896;  Dr.  Jonas  O.  Peck,  Associate  Mis- 
sionary Secretary,  May  17,  1894;  Dr.  Henry  Liebhart,  Editor  of 
Haus  and  Herd,  January  26,  1895;  Dr.  John  M.  Reid,  Honor- 


134 


History  of  Methodism. 


ary  Secretary  of  the  Mission  Board,  May,  1S9G;  and  Dr.  B.  F. 
( Jrary,  Editor  of  California  Christian  Advocate,  March  16, 1895. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  Church  in  the  North  con- 
vened in  the  city  of  Cleveland  on  Friday,  May  1,  1896.  The 
representation  consisted  of  five  hundred  and  thirty-eight  dele- 
gates. The  initial  action  of  the  Conference  was  to  hear  a 
protest,  signed  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley  and  others,  against  the 
admission  to  membership  of  those  women  who  had  been  elected 
by  certain  electoral  conferences  and  whose  names  appeared 
on  the  roll.  A  special  committee  was  ordered  to  report  on  this 
protest.  On  the  following  day  this  committee  submitted  both 
a  majority  and  a  minority  report.  The  majority  report  dis- 
allowed the  protest  and  favored  the  seating  of  the  female  dele- 
gates. The  minority,  on  the  contrary,  held  that  this  course 
was  clearly  illegal  in  view  of  the  action  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1872,  which  admitted  laymen  to  membership  in  the 
general  body.  Prior  to  the  presentation  of  these  reports,  how- 
ever, the  secretary  read  a  communication  from  these  ladies 
relinquishing,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  all  claims  to  membership 
in  the  Conference.  They  did  not  waive  the  claims  of  women 
to  sit  as  delegates  in  future  sessions,  but  believed  that  the  ac- 
tion which  they  proposed  was  best  for  the  time  being.  There- 
upon both  the  reports  of  the  committee  on  eligibility  were  re- 
committed for  further  consideration. 

The  final  report  of  this  committee  was  that  the  question  of 
eligibility  was  a  constitutional  one,  and  that  as  the  General 
Conference  has  power  to  interpret  the  constitution  it  should 
determine  the  status  of  the  case  by  formal  action.  They  further 
recommended  that  no  form  of  decision  of  the  question  be  made 
at  that  time,  but  that,  as  the  challenge  had  not  been  judicially 
passed  upon,  the  women  then  occupying  seats  should  continue 
to  do  so  under  a  title  in  dispute,  yet  without  prejudice  or  the 
establishment  of  a  precedent.  The  committee  finally  recom- 
mended that  the  second  Restrictive  Rule  be  amended  so  as  to 
remove  from  it  any  question  of  sex  in  the  lay  delegations  to 
be  returned  from  the  Conferences.  This  proposition  was  agreed 
to,  and  the  bishops  were  instructed  to  submit  the  proposed 
amendment  to  the  Annual  Conferences  during  the  ensuing 
quadrennium.    The  question  of  equal  representation  of  min- 


Sen tori ty — Elec t ions — A  Crux. 


135 


isters  and  laymen  in  the  General  Conference  was  also  ordered 
to  be  submitted  for  constitutional  ratification. 

At  this  time  the  rule  of  seniority  began  to  be  rigidly  applied 
to  the  members  of  the  Episcopal  Board.  Bishops  Bowman  and 
Foster  were  retired  from  the  effective  list,  and  Missionary 
Bishop  Taylor  was  also  retired  as  noneffective  through  age. 
The  Conference  ordered  that  the  episcopacy  be  strengthened 
by  the  election  of  two  additional  General  Superintendents  and 
that  a  missionary  bishop  be  selected  for  service  in  Africa.  On 
May  15  the  elections  were  held,  two-thirds  of  the  ballots  cast 
being  necessary  to  a  choice.  This  resulted  in  a  prolonged  vote; 
only  on  the  fifteenth  ballot  the  first  election,  that  of  Charles 
C.  McCabe,  was  had.  On  the  sixteenth  ballot  Earl  Cranston 
was  elected,  with  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  votes.  Joseph 
C.  Hartzell  was  elected  missionary  bishop  for  Africa. 

The  elections  for  connectional  officials  resulted  as  follows: 
Publishing  Agents,  New  York,  Homer  Eaton  and  George  P. 
Mains;  Cincinnati,  Lewis  Curts  and  Henry  C.  Jennings;  Editor 
Methodist  Review,  William  V.  Kelley;  Editor  Christian  Advo- 
cate, J.  M.  Buckley;  Editor  Sunday  School  Publications, 
Jesse  L.  Hurl  but;  Corresponding  Secretaries  Missionary  So- 
ciety, A.  B.  Leonard,  A.  J.  Palmer,  and  W.  T.  Smith;  Editor 
Epworth  Herald,  Joseph  F.  Berry;  Secretaries  Church  Exten- 
sion, A.  J.  Kynett  and  W.  A.  Spencer. 

A  crux  which  has  constantly  vexed  the  publication  adminis- 
tration of  all  the  American  Churches  was  dealt  with  at  this 
sitting.  The  Book  Committee  was  instructed  to  take  under 
advisement  the  diminution  of  the  number  of  Church  news- 
papers and  report  the  results  of  their  study  to  the  General 
Conference  of  1900.  The  committee  was  also  authorized  to 
discontinue  any  depository  or  periodical  when  the  interests 
of  the  Church  or  of  the  Book  Concern  demanded  it.  A  book 
depository  was  authorized  to  be  established  in  Detroit, 
Mich. 

The  deaconess  work  was  found  to  be  growing  to  proportions 
of  importance.  The  bishops  were  authorized  to  prepare  a  form 
for  the  consecration  of  deaconesses,  which  form  was  to  be  in- 
serted in  the  Appendix  to  the  Discipline.  Pastors  of  charges 
were  forbidden  to  engage  evangelists  other  than  those  ap- 


130 


History  of  Methodism, 


pointed  by  the  bishops  of  their  respective  Conferences  unless 
consent  were  given  by  the  presiding  elder.  There  w  as  a  strong 
protest  against  this  order.  In  both  Churches  at  this  time  the 
question  of  evangelism  was  delicate  and  crucial. 

At  the  close  of  this  quadrennium  (1804-97,  inclusive!  the 
Church  in  Canada  reported  2.000  ministers,  3,000  local  preach- 
ers, 7,750  class  leaders,  and  32,600  Sunday  school  teachers, 
with  a  revised  roll  of  278,000  members.  The  Dominion  census 
reported  a  Methodist  population  of  847,000.  The  universities 
and  colleges  of  the  Church  occupied  no  second  place  in  the  edu- 
cational work  of  the  country.  They  reported  2.000  students, 
with  good  foundation  in  endowments.  The  Publishing  House 
of  the  Connection  reported  an  annual  business  of  not  less  than 
$1,000,000.  The  circulation  of  denominational  literature  was 
general  and  healthy.  The  Missionary  Society  reported  in  its 
Indian,  -French,  and  foreign  fields  175  missionaries,  with  430 
in  the  home  field.  The  yearly  income  of  the  Society,  with  that 
of  the  Woman's  Board,  had  reached  nearly  $300,000.  Grati- 
fying advance  had  been  made  in  the  work  of  creating  super- 
annuate and  other  funds  of  relief.  As  always  throughout  its 
history,  the  Church  was  then  engaged  "in  the  holy  war  against 
the  unholy  liquor  traffic." 

The  sessions  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference  for  the 
years  1894-97,  inclusive,  were  held  as  follows — viz. :  Tuesday, 
July  17,  1894,  at  Birmingham,  the  Rev.  Walford  Green,  Presi- 
dent, and  the  Rev.  David  J.  Waller,  Secretary ;  Tuesday,  July 
23,  1895,  at  Plymouth,  the  Rev.  David  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent, and  the  Rev.  Marshall  Hartley,  Secretary;  Tuesday,  July 
21,  1890,  at  Liverpool,  the  Rev.  Marshall  Randies,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent, and  the  Rev.  Marshall  Hartley,  Secretary ;  Tuesday,  July 
20,  1897,  at  Leeds,  the  Rev.  W.  L.  Watkinson,  President,  and 
the  Rev.  Marshall  Hartley,  Secretary.  In  1894  the  Rev.  James 
Chapman  became  a  member  of  the  Legal  Hundred.  This  honor 
was  also  conferred  upon  the  Rev.  Henry  Haigh  in  1896.  Both 
of  these  distinguished  brethren  have  been  fraternal  delegates 
to  the  American  Churches. 

Referring  to  the  progress  of  an  important  arm  of  the 
Church's  work  for  1894,  the  Conference  address  says:  "The 
work  of  our  Central  Missions  is  increasing  in  interest,  impor- 


British  Missions — Criticism — Civic  Problems.  137 


tance,  and  success,  and  continues  4o  inspire  our  deepest  grati- 
tude and  largest  hope.  In  the  history  of  these  missions  we  see 
how  much  may  be  accomplished  by  the  wise  adaptation  of 
methods  to  social  conditions  and  needs  and  how  greatly  the 
spiritual  ends  of  the  gospel  may  be  aided  by  its  ministry  to 
material  sorrows  and  wants."  These  missions  were  particu- 
larly the  product  of  the  sowing  of  Hugh  Price  Hughes  and  his 
fellow  reformers. 

The  attitude  of  the  Conference  toward  the  criticism  of  the 
age  was  one  of  confidence  in  the  Bible  and  its  teachings.  That 
age  demanded  that  all  beliefs  and  records  should  be  tested  by 
the  same  methods  of  investigation  as  those  applied  to  secular 
and  philosophical  issues.  The  Conference  did  not  consider 
this  demand  unreasonable,  nor  did  it  feel  fear  concerning  the 
outcome.  If  faith  in  the  gospel  is  to  continue  to  have  su- 
premacy over  the  minds  of  men,  it  must  not  only  show  its 
harmony  with  truth  of  every  kind,  but  must  commend  itself 
to  the  highest  intelligence  of  the  age  and  show  its  super- 
excellence  in  every  contest.  "The  infallibility  of  the  Bible  as 
a  revelation  of  spiritual  truth,"  said  the  Conference,  "will  be- 
come more  firmly  established  as  its  contents  and  credentials 
are  more  carefully  examined.  The  word  of  God  and  human 
reason  have  the  same  Author,  and  the  truth  of  one  is  confirmed 
by  its  fitness  to  illumine  and  guide  the  other." 

The  British  Methodists,  at  this  juncture,  were  confronted 
with  many  difficult  civic  and  social  problems.  While  no  more 
than  in  America  has  Methodism  in  England  been  political,  the 
Methodists  in  England  have  always  done  all  in  their  power  to 
make  the  law  of  Christ  supreme  over  every  department  of 
national,  social,  and  economic  life.  At  this  time  they  were  es- 
pecially impressed  that  "the  application  of  Christian  princi- 
ples to  public  questions  was  one  of  the  urgent  needs"  of  their 
day.  Those  Methodists  who  dwelt  in  villages  were  specially 
reminded  of  their  opportunity  for  promoting  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  They  were  urged  to  enter  the  holy  warfare 
against  gambling  and  intemperance  in  all  their  forms  and  to 
promote  such  "repressive  and  prohibitive  legislation  as  shall 
diminish  the  temptations  to  these  evils  and  render  their  prac- 
tice more  difficult  and  inexcusable."    Commercial  gambling 


138 


History  oj  Methodism. 


was  outlawed  as  "a  cowardly,  dishonest  practice  and  one  which 
cannot  fail  to  be  visited  with  the  most  terrible  retribution." 

Plymouth,  though  an  important  and  ancient  city  and  often 
and  successfully  visited  by  Mr.  Wesley,  had  not  witnessed  a 
session  of  the  Methodist  Conference  until  1895.  It  was  do1 
surprising,  therefore,  that  the  gathering  was  attended  by  large 
numbers,  who  came  in  "the  spirit  of  expectation  and  prayer.'' 
The  Conference,  through  its  address,  advised  that  "Methodism 
is  essentially  and  emphatically  a  spiritual  force." 

The  Junior  Society  classes  in  the  Wesleyan  congregations 
greatly  increased  during  this  year.  This  proved  a  doubly 
happy  coincident,  for  it  was  now  that  plans  were  put  on  foot 
for  the  organization  of  the  Young  People's  Guild.  This  Guild 
corresponds  in  almost  every  particular  to  the  Epworth  League 
in  the  American  Churches  and  became  prosperous  and  influen- 
tial in  the  years  immediately  following  its  organization.  At  a 
number  of  the  great  International  League  gatherings  in  this 
country  the  Guild  has  had  representation  and  has  helped  to 
contribute  to  the  world-wide  spirit  generated  by  the  movement. 

Through  depression  at  home  and  expansion  in  the  mission 
field  the  Wesleyan  Connection  was  carrying  a  heavy  debt  in  its 
Mission  Board,  but  plans  were  now  begun  for  its  liquidation. 
This  was  accomplished  by  means  of  concentrated  activities 
centered  about  special  days  of  prayer  and  intercession.  Scarce- 
ly since  the  days  of  Wesley  had  there  been  noted  a  more  ear- 
nest desire  amongst  the  people  to  hear  the  Word,  and  This  was 
particularly  true  of  the  younger  people.  It  wa»s  found  that 
nearly  a  million  had  been  enrolled  and  were  in  weekly  attend- 
ance in  the  Sunday  schools  of  the  Connection.  Thus  the  yea~ 
ended  in  great  confidence  and  mope. 

In  contrast  with  the  buoyant  spiritual  atmosphere  about  the 
Conference  which  met  at  Plymouth  in  1805,  the  one  which  met 
at  Liverpool  in  1806  gave  out  a  note  of  sadness,  though  not  of 
pronounced  discouragement.  Whereas  the  years  1804  and  1895 
had  each  reported  a  large  increase  in  the  connectional  mem- 
bership, the  reports  for  1806  showed  a  net  loss;  also  both  in 
the  home  and  foreign  fields  the  Church  had  through  death  suf- 
fered great  loss  from  the  ranks  of  its  workers.  Nearly  six 
thousand  lay  members  had  died  in  the  homeland.    Other  de- 


Peter  McKenzie. 


pressing  items  were  noted;  but  attendance  upon  Church  serv- 
ices and  the  Sunday  school  continued  to  hold  up  to  the  former 
high  standard.  Also  the  missionary  debt  had  been  fully  dis 
charged,  and  the  various  auxiliary  organizations — social,  tem- 
perance, educational,  and  philanthropic — were  accomplishing 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  designed. 

On  November  21,  1895,  died  in  England  Peter  McKenzie, 
whose  origin  and  remarkable  career  recall  the  memory  of  such 
early  American  itinerants  as  Lorenzo  Dow  and  Peter  Cart- 
wright.  McKenzie  was  born  in  Glen  Shee,  Scotland,  on  No- 
vember 11,  1824.  Early  in  life  he  removed  to  the  north  of 
England,  where  he  found  work  in  the  coal  mines.  In  1849  he 
was  converted  and  became  a  local  preacher.  Almost  at  once 
he  began  to  have  success  as  a  soul  winner.  As  a  lay  evangelist 
he  spent  four  years  in  the  Bishop  Aukland  Circuit.  Being  pro- 
posed as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  in  1858,  he  was  accepted 
by  the  Conference.  The  year  following  this  action  he  spent  at 
Didsbury  College,  where  it  was  proposed  that  he  should  receive 
ministerial  training;  but,  owing  to  the  widespread  demand  for 
his  service,  most  of  the  time  was  given  to  evangelistic  work. 
He  now  began  to  gain  that  popularity  which  increased  steadily 
through  all  his  after  years,  most  of  which  were  spent  in  the 
north  of  England.  His  services  as  preacher  and  lecturer  were 
eagerly  coveted,  and  in  the  effort  to  respond  to  the  calls 
made  upon  him  he  labored  almost  incessantly  for  forty  years. 
Strangely  enough,  it  is  reported  that  during  all  this  time  he 
neglected  no  circuit  work  or  other  charge  committed  to  him. 
Permission  was  given  him  from  the  Conference  in  1896  to  re- 
linquish circuit  work  and  devote  the  whole  of  his  time  and 
energy  to  the  Connection  at  large.  This  he  did  with  unvary- 
ing assiduity  and  self-denial.  His  gifts  were  both  ample  and 
unique;  a  diligent  cultivation  conserved  their  freshness  and 
enhanced  their  effect.  A  man  of  prayer,  he  combined  with  his 
sanctity  the  qualities  of  humor,  sympathy,  pathos,  and  dramatic 
power.  These,  aided  by  a  vivacious  and  radiant  personality, 
made  him  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  widely  loved  of 
English  Methodist  preachers.* 


♦Minutes  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  for  1896. 


140 


Hist  or  if  of  Methodism. 


The  reports  from  the  Irish  Conference  during  the  period 
now  being  covered  were  indicative  of  a  uniform,  if  not  phe- 
nomenal, advance.  The  Conference  discharged  a  heavy  in- 
debtedness resting  upon  Belfast  College,  one  of  its  two  insular 
denominational  schools,  and  was  also  able  materially  to  extend 
its  home  mission  field,  thereby  impressing  the  Roman  Catholic 
population  by  which  its  membership  is  surrounded.  Irish 
Methodism  at  this  time  was  particularly  set  over  against  a 
rising  tide  of  sacerdotalism,  not  only  in  the  Episcopal 
Churches,  but  also  in  some  of. those  of  the  Nonconformists.  It 
suffered  also  from  a  constant  depletion  of  membership  through 
emigration,  a  thing  which  has  been  the  bane  of  Irish  Meth- 
odism since  its  beginning.  This  Conference  also  mourned  in 
this  year  the  death  of  not  a  few  of  its  workers  and  leaders, 
chiefest  amongst  whom  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  McCutcheon,  "the 
value  of  whose  wise  and  ungrudgingly  devoted  service  to  the 
Conference  could  hardly  be  overstated."  Thus  testified  his 
spiritual  sons  and  surviving  comrades  in  the  work  he  loved. 

In  1804  the  Wesleyan  Conference  transferred  the  whole  of 
Zululand  to  the  South  African  Methodist  Conference.  At  that 
time  the  South  African  body  reported  its  membership  as  being 
little  short  of  fifty  thousand,  with  nearly  eight  thousand  in 
Junior  Societies.  By  1806  this  number  had  been  increased 
by  nearly  eight  thousand  more,  though  the  work  of  the  Con- 
ference, especially  in  its  native  and  up-continent  mission 
fields,  suffered  from  the  unrest  which  boded  the  coming  of  the 
disastrous  Boer  War,  a  war  at  last  compensated  for  in  botli 
civic  and  religious  returns. 

YVe  have  already  traced  the  course  of  Methodist  union  in 
Australia  and  have  anticipated  the  date  of  its  consummation. 
At  the  time  of  the  record  now  being  made  (1804  )  the  move- 
ment was  fully  under  way.  The  General  Conference  of  the 
Wesleyan  body  in  the  South  Sea  continent  had  accepted  the 
basis  of  union  and  had  sent  a  referendum  to  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences. The  result  is  already  well  known  to  the  reader.  In 
this  year  a  Methodist  mission  was  regularly  established  in 
New  Guinea,  the  success  of  which  has  been  one  of  the  religious 
interests  of  the  South  Seas. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Baltimore  and  Early  Methodism — Southern  General  Conference  of  1898 
— Close  of  Century — Statistics — Jubilee  of  Missions — Retirement  of 
Bishop  Keener — Report  of  Commission  on  Articles  of  Religion — 
"Candidating"  —  Andrew  Hunter  —  Legislation  —  Spanish- American 
\Na,r — Death  of  Gladstone — Fraternal  Visitors — Elections — Collec- 
tion of  War  Claim — History  of  the  Publishing  House — History  of 
the  Sunday  School  Department— 1898-1901. 

r  I  THE  early  history  of  organic  Methodism  in  America  is 


I  closely  associated  with  the  city  of  Baltimore.  It  was 
upon  Baltimore  that  the  affections  of  Bishop  Asbury  were  con- 
stantly and  particularly  centered.  Baltimore  he  called  his 
home ;  there  and  thereabout  were  many  of  his  choicest  friends, 
and  in  its  ancient  cemetery  his  ashes  found  their  final  rest. 
At  Baltimore  the  Methodist  Societies  were  erected  into  a 
Church  and  sent  on  their  way  of  glory  and  triumph.  The  Bal- 
timore session  of  the  Conference,  previous  to  the  settlement  of 
exclusive  powers  of  legislation  upon  a  quadrennial  General 
Conference  in  1792,  was  regarded  as  the  "Upper  House  of 
Methodism."  It  became  the  habit  to  carry  questions  of  canon 
and  administration  to  the  Baltimore  session  for  confirmation. 
This  and  other  considerations  early  crystallized  into  the  senti- 
ment that  the  General  Conference  should  not  meet  elsewhere 
than  in  Baltimore,  and  from  1784  to  1808,  inclusive,  all  the 
general  sessions  were  held  in  that  city.  The  early  bishops — 
Asbury,  Whatcoat,  McKendree,  George,  Roberts,  Soule,  and 
Hedding — were  all  chosen  and  consecrated  here.  And  it  was 
here  also,  in  1808,  that  the  constitution  of  the  Church  was 
written  and  adopted,  changing  the  old  order  into  a  new  by 
putting  the  General  Conference  on  the  basis  of  a  delegated  as- 
sembly. When,  therefore,  the  thirteenth  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  (being  the  twenty- 
eighth  session  since  1784),  met  in  Baltimore  in  May,  1898,  the 
opening  exercises  were  marked  by  appropriate  references  to 
the  historic  conjunction  which  was  then  formed.  - 

Another  circumstance  called  for  note  and  comment:  the  sit- 
ting was  within  two  years  of  the  close  of  the  world's  greatest 


(141) 


142 


History  of  Methodism. 


century.  The  Conference  felt  the  logic  of  this  situation  and 
sought  to  gauge  its  opportunities  and  realize  its  momentous 
obligations.  Perhaps  to  this  consideration  was  due  the  fad 
that  remarkably  little  radical  legislation  was  undertaken  and 
that  the  Conference  adjourned  after  a  session  of  only  eighteen 
days. 

The  bishops  reported  the  total  membership  of  the  Church  to 
be  1,478,431;  ministers,  local  and  itinerant,  11,G74.  The  total 
value  of  Church  property  was  shown  to  be  $35,000,000,  an  in- 
crease of  |2,000,000  for  the  quadrennium.  During  the  same 
time  f2,067,955  was  contributed  to  the  cause  of  missions.  In 
this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  session  marked 
the  jubilee  of  the  opening  of  the  China  Mission,  out  of  which 
the  work  in  Japan  and  Korea  has  grown.  Dr.  Young  J.  Allen, 
the  veteran  missionary  of  the  Church,  addressed  the  Conference 
in  appropriate  allusion  to  this  jubilee  and  in  a  great  discussion 
of  the  issues  which  are  to  be  worked  out  in  Oriental  lands. 

When  the  Conference  was  but  fairly  opened,  Bishop  John  C. 
Keener,  amid  deep  solemnity  and  in  a  paper  of  rare  point  and 
eloquence,  asked,  on  account  of  his  age,  to  be  relieved  of  the 
active  duties  of  the  episcopal  office.  "The  new  birth,"  the 
Bishop  said,  reviewing  the  spiritual  life  and  teachings  of  the 
Church,  "is  the  keystone  of  Wesleyan  doctrine.  This  is  the 
'Scriptural  holiness'  which  Mr.  Wesley  sought  to  spread 
throughout  England  and  America:  that  'the  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God.'"  The  paper  was  appropriately  responded  to  by  Bishop 
Galloway  on  the  part  of  the  College  of  Bishops,  and  in  due 
process  the  Conference  granted  Bishop  Keener' s  request,  mak- 
ing response  to  his  address  in  formal  resolution,  as  follows : 

The  General  Conference  has  heard  with  deep  emotion  the  address 
of  our  beloved  Senior  Bishop,  John  Christian  Keener,  and  desires  to 
make  some  record  of  its  appreciation  of  his  high  character  and  long 
service.  It  could  not  but  be  that  a  man  of  such  pronounced  strength  at 
so  many  points  would  be  placed  in  positions  of  great  trust  and  useful- 
ness. .  .  .  For  the  long  period  of  twenty-eight  years  he  has  borne 
the  burdens  of  the  episcopal  office  and  for  the  past  nine  years  has  been 
the  Senior  Bishop.  He  has  discharged  the  weighty  and  delicate  duties 
of  his  office  faithfully.  .  .  .  We  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father  may 


Bishop  Keener — Articles  of  Religion.  L43 

long  spare  his  aged  servant  to  bless  the  Church  with  his  presence,  inter- 
est, and  love. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  that  Bishop  Keener  be  released  from 
official  duties,  assuring  him  that  such  work  as  his  strength  may  enable 
him  to  perform  will  be  greatly  appreciated  by  our  whole  Church. 

By  order  of  the  General  Conference  of  1894  a  commission, 
consisting  of  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  Collins  Denny,  W.  P.  Har- 
rison, W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  and  John  J.  Tigert,  was  ap- 
pointed to  examine  the  text  of  the  Articles  of  Religion,  to  pub- 
lish in  the  Church  newspapers  the  results  of  this  examination, 
and  to  submit  to  the  General  Conference  of  1898  such  recom- 
mendations as  might  seem  to  be  necessary.  The  commission 
met  in  June,  1895,  and  adopted  a  report,  which  was  published 
in  the  Methodist  Review  for  September-October,  1895,  and  also 
in  other  Church  periodicals.  This  report,  slightly  altered,  was 
submitted  to  the  General  Conference  of  1898.  The  report  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  the  commission  had  discovered  that,  while 
no  changes  affecting  the  doctrinal  integrity  of  the  Articles  had 
occurred,  a  number  of  inaccuracies  and  typographical  errors 
had  crept  in.  It  was  also  shown  that  the  General  Conference 
of  1804,  a  session  which  occurred  before  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution  and  therefore  possessed  of  plenary  powers,  had 
changed  Article  XXIII.  by  adding  the  word  "President."  Two 
unauthorized  changes  were  noted,  as  follows : 

Article  I.,  as  adopted  in  1784,  at  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
read:  "There  is  but  one  living  and  true  God,  everlasting,  without  body, 
parts,  or  passions/'  etc  In  the  Discipline  of  1786  and  till  the  present 
time  (1898)  the  Article  reads:  "There  is  but  one  living  and  true  God, 
everlasting,  without  body  or  parts,"  etc. 

Article  II.,  as  adopted  in  1784,  at  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
read:  "The  Son,  who  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  begotten  from  ever- 
lasting of  the  Father,  the  very  and  eternal  God,"  etc.  In  the  Discipline 
of  1786  and  till  the  present  time  (1898)  the  Article  reads:  "The  Son, 
who  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  the  very  and  eternal  God,"  etc. 

The  commission  recommended  the  adoption  of  the  following, 
which  was  indorsed  by  the  Conference : 

1.  That  the  General  Conference  declare  the  text  of  the  Articles  of 
Religion  contained  in  the  report  to  be  the  standard  text  of  the  Articles 
of  Religion  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


History  of  Methodism. 


2.  That  the  footnote  to  Article  XXIII.  shall  stand  as  amended  by  the 
General  Conference  of  1854.* 

3.  That  the  Book  Editor  and  Book  Agents  shall  cause  the  text,  with 
the  footnote,  to  be  put  into  plates,  and  the  text  thus  put  into  plates  shall 
thereafter  constitute  the  standard  copy  of  our  Articles  of  Religion  and 
shall  be  placed  in  the  custody  of  the  bishops;  and  that  the  Book  Editor 
shall  attach  to  the  Articles  of  Religion  published  in  the  Discipline, 
hymn  book,  and  other  works  a  certificate  that  he  has  compared  the 
Articles  of  Religion  contained  in  the  publication  with  the  standard 
text  and  has  found  them  to  agree  therewith. 

Apropos  of  a  statement  already  made  in  these  pages  con- 
cerning candidating  for  Church,  office,  the  Conference  in  a 
formal  resolution  entered  its  ''serious  protest  against  the  pub- 
lication of  any  article,  either  editorial  or  communicated,  in 
any  of  our  Church  organs  or  other  Church  periodicals  and 
against  any  other  methods  which  may  tend  to  foster  in  any 
measure  an  unwarranted  rivalry  for  official  preferment." 

The  venerable  Andrew  Hunter,  of  Arkansas,  being  a  super- 
annuate and  present  at  the  Conference  as  a  visitor,  was  of- 
ficially invited  to  a  seat  on  the  platform  and  was  shown  other 
marks  of  respect  and  veneration.  Another  delicate  act  of  the 
body  was  to  request  Bishop  O.  P.  Fitzgerald  to  write  a  vol 
ume  of  reminiscences  covering  the  long  years  of  his  service  in 
the  ministry  of  the  Church.  It  is  likely  that  only  failing  health, 
which  soon  became  pronounced,  prevented  the  Bishop  from 
compliance  with  this  request.  Some  years  afterwards  he  did 
print  a  small  volume  somewhat  of  this  character,  entitled  "Sun- 
set Views." 

A  number  of  more  or  less  important  items  of  legislation  may 
be  summarized.  The  Annual  Conference  Committee  on  Ad- 
missions to  the  Itinerancy  was  ordered.  This  committee  in- 
quires into  the  fitness  of  the  applicants  for  admission  into  the 
pastoral  office.  The  White  River  Conference  was  authorized  to 
merge  with  the  other  Conferences  in  Arkansas  when  the  commis 

*The  text  of  this  note  is  as  follows:  "As  far  as  it  respects  civil  affairs, 
we  believe  it  the  duty  of  Christians,  and  especially  all  Christian  min- 
isters, to  be  subject  to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  country  where  they 
may  reside,  and  to  use  all  laudable  means  to  enjoin  obedience  to  the 
powers  that  be;  and  therefore  it  is  expected  that  all  our  preachers  and 
people  will  behave  themselves  as  peaceable  and  orderly  subjects." 


Legisla  Hon — Spanish- A merican  War — G ladstone.  145 


sions  from  the  several  Conferences  should  so  agree.  The  Book 
Committee  was  instructed  to  enlarge  the  Christian  Advocate 
and  otherwise  improve  its  letterpress.  The  salaries  of  con- 
nectional  editors  and  secretaries  were  placed  at  $3,000  per 
annum.  The  Book  Committee  was  authorized  to  establish  a 
Publishing  House  in  China,  provision  for  which  had  already 
been  made.  The  sum  of  $50,000  was  appropriated  for  this  use. 
An  interesting  and  important  order  was  passed  to  the  effect 
that  "any  traveling  or  local  preacher  or  layman  is  prohibited 
from  holding  services  in  the  bounds  of  any  charge  of  the 
Church  when  requested  by  the  preacher  in  charge  not  to  hold 
such  service."  This  was  the  famous  "Paragraph  301." 

The  crucial  hours  of  the  Spanish-American  War  were  rapid- 
ly approaching  when  the  Conference  opened  its  session.  In 
recognition  of  the  gravity  of  the  issue  and  of  the  humane  and 
statesmanlike  attitude  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
Mr.  McKinley,  the  Conference  passed  a  series  of  resolutions 
commending  the  President's  efforts  to  avoid  war  and  assuring 
him  of  the  prayerful  and  patriotic  support  of  Methodist  peo- 
ple in  prosecuting  the  contest  to  "the  ends  of  justice,  right- 
eousness, and  truth."  These  resolutions  were  dispatched 
through  the  secretary  to  the  executive  mansion  at  Washing- 
ton, and  in  due  time  a  response  was  received.  The  President 
expressed  "sincere  appreciation  of  the  commendation  and  good 
will"  of  the  Conference.  Soon  afterwards  the  war  was  prac- 
tically closed  in  the  great  sea  battle  off  Santiago. 

On  May  18  newrs  was  received  in  the  Conference  room  of  the 
death  of  the  Hon.  William  E.  Gladstone  at  Hawarden,  and  the 
body  suspended  its  proceedings  to  adopt  formal  resolutions 
touching  the  sad  event.  "We  join  with  the  stricken  nation  of 
which  he  was  the  chief  ornament  in  life,"  said  the  eulogy,  "in 
tendering  our  sympathies  and  our  sorrows  at  the  loss,  not  only 
to  the  English-speaking  people,  but  to  the  world,  of  a  man  so 
great  in  every  department  of  thought  that  engaged  his  atten- 
tion ;  and  we  will  not  cease  to  do  honor  to  his  memory  and  to 
mingle  our  sorrows  with  our  brothers  across  the  water  that 
his  face  shall  be  seen  no  more  on  earth." 

The  fraternal  messages  and  reports  at  this  Conference  made 
an  unusually  interesting  and  cheering  chapter.  The  Rev.  W. 
10 


no 


History  of  Methodism. 


S.  Griffin,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  was  in- 
troduced and  delivered  an  able  and  felicitous  address.  Iu  a 
generally  noteworthy  message  the  following  utterance  may  be 
emphasized : 

We  recognize  also  that  you  are  placed  in  widely  different  circum- 
stances from  perhaps  any  other  Methodist  Church  in  the  world.  In 
your  country  there  are  two  races  whose  true  relation  to  each  other  has 
been  exhaustively  discussed  by  the  ablest  men  of  both  races;  and  as  I 
understand  it,  there  is  to-day  a  consensus  of  opinion  which  takes  this 
form  of  expression:  Equality  before  the  law,  with  social  distinctness. 
It  has  afforded  us  unspeakable  pleasure  to  note  with  what  valor  you 
that  are  strong  have  espoused  the  cause  of  the  weak.  Holding  in  your 
hands  so  much  of  the  nation's  wealth  and  so  many  resources  of  its 
civil  power,  you  have  come  to  the  rescue  of  those  whose  disadvantages 
and  disabilities  were  everywhere  known  and  by  your  liberality  and 
labor  of  love  have  helped  them  in  their  struggle  upward  to  that  place  in 
civil  government,  educational  advantages,  and  religious  liberty  which 
they  now  enjoy;  and  whatever  more  they  are  entitled  to,  I  know  you 
will  help  them  to  gain. 

Bishop  Cyrus  D.  Foss,  of  the  Church,  North,  unofficially 
visiting  the  Conference,  was  introduced  and  was  heard  with 
great  satisfaction.  Dr.  Joseph  F.  Berry  (later  elected  bishop) 
and  Hon.  J.  P.  Dolliver,  M.C.,  fraternal  delegates  from  the 
same  Church,  brought  eloquent  greetings. .  Dr.  Berry's  address 
contained  this  most  happy  reference  to  pertinent  historic  ante- 
cedents : 

During  the  last  few  days  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  visit  places 
sacred  to  all  our  hearts  because  they  are  so  closely  associated  with  the 
illustrious  pioneers  of  our  Church.  I  have  traveled  the  Sam's  Creek 
Circuit,  stood  under  the  great  oak  near  the  Paulson  House  where  Robert 
Strawbridge  often  preached,  rested  for  a  time  in  the  Evans  House,  the 
oldest  Methodist  meetinghouse  now  standing  upon  the  continent,  and 
lingered  in  the  prophet's  chamber  of  the  old  Warfield  home,  where  Mo- 
Kendree  often  lodged  and  Asbury  wrote  large  portions  of  his  journals. 
Only  this  afternoon  I  stood  in  delightful  reverie  at  the  side  of  Lovely 
Lane  Chapel,  where  assembled  the  Christmas  Conference.  In  fancy  I 
saw  the  historic  group.  There  was  Coke,  strong,  fearless,  evangelistic. 
There  also  was  Asbury,  sympathetic,  spiritual,  tireless.  With  these 
leaders  were  eighty-three  intrepid  pioneers,  half  of  them  scarcely  more 
than  boys.  .  .  .  That,  you  remember,  was  when  the  sun  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  was  sinking  in  the  west. 


Fraternal  Messengers — Bishop-Elect. 


147 


Dr.  W.  T.  Davison,  fraternal  delegate  from  the  Wesley ;m 
Connection,  was  heard  with  boundless  delight.  "To  your 
Church,  sir,"  he  said,  "it  is  my  privilege  to  bring  from  the 
British  Wesleyan  Conference  the  most  hearty  greeting.  Lei 
it  be  couched  in  the  old  apostolic  phraseology:  'Grace  be  unto 
you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father,  and  from  the  Lord  Je- 
sus Christ.'  Grace,  peace — the  blessings  of  the  upper  and  the 
nether  springs.  Grace — that  is  the  perennial  fountain  among 
the  everlasting  hills  of  God's  unfailing  and  changeless  love. 
Out  of  that  grace  spring  all  the  good  we  have,  all  the  pardon 
that  is  needed  for  sinners,  all  the  purity  that  is  needed  for 
saints,  all  the  power  that  is  needed  for  the  maintenance  of 
Church  life  and  enterprise.  May  the  grace  of  God,  with  all  the 
blessings  that  it  brings,  be  with  you  always !" 

Dr.  J.  C.  Morris,  fraternal  delegate  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  Dr.  E.  E.  Hoss,  delegate  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Canadian  Church,  made  their  reports.  Bishop  C.  C 
Petty,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  brought 
an  appreciated  message  from  his  branch  of  the  colored  Meth- 
odist family.  Dr.  John  A.  Rice  was  appointed  fraternal  dele- 
gate to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  America  then  in  session. 

The  bishops  in  their  quadrennial  address  having  recom- 
mended the  election  of  two  additional  General  Superintendents, 
and  the  Conference  by  resolution  having  indorsed  the  sugges- 
tion, on  May  17  the  episcopal  elections  were  ordered.  On  the 
first  ballot  E.  E.  Hoss  received  102  votes ;  H.  C.  Morrison,  101 ; 
and  W.  A.  Candler,  100.  Necessary  to  a  choice,  127.  The  Chair 
declared  that  there  was  no  election.  On  the  second  ballot  W. 
A.  Candler  received  148  votes ;  H.  C.  Morrison,  140 ;  and  E.  E. 
Hoss,  129 — being  a  majority  for  each.  The  result  was  anoma- 
lous; the  elections  exceeded  the  order.  It  was  proposed  to  re- 
consider the  vote  by  which  it  was  determined  to  elect  only  two 
bishops  and  make  the  number  three,  but  Dr.  Hoss  objected  so 
strenuously  that  the  proposition  was  not  carried  out.  Drs. 
Candler  and  Morrison  were  duly  consecrated.  At  the  General 
Conference  four  years  later  Dr.  Hoss  was  elected  to  the  epis- 
copacy on  the  first  ballot  by  a  remarkably  large  majority. 


148 


History  of  Methodism. 


Dr.  Candler,  as  the  successor  of  Bishop  Haygood  in  the  presi- 
dency of  Emory  College,  had  achieved  marked  success.  Nor  had 
his  work  as  pastor  and  Assistant  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advo- 
cate been  less  successful.  He  was  forty-one  years  of  age.  Dr. 
Morrison  had  filled  a  number  of  prominent  pastorates  in  the 
Church  and  had  just  finished  a  particularly  successful  quad 
renniurn  as  Missionary  Secretary.  He  was  within  a  few  days 
of  his  fifty-sixth  birthday  at  the  time  of  his  election. 

The  election  for  connectional  officers  resulted  as  follows : 
E.  E.  Hoss,  Editor  Christian  Advocate;  P.  H.  Whisner,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension;  W.  R.  Lambuth  and 
J.  H.  Pritchett,  Missionary  Secretaries;  J.  I).  Barbee  and  D. 
M.  Smith,  Book  Agents;  John  J.  Tigert,  Book  Editor;  James 
Atkins,  Sunday  School  Editor;  H.  M.  Du  Bose,  Epworth 
League  Secretary  and  Editor;  W.  B.  Murrah,  Secretary  of 
Education. 

It  was  at  the  session  of  the  Baltimore  General  Conference 
that  official  announcement  was  first  made  of  the  success  of 
the  efforts  to  collect  the  long-standing  claims  of  the  Publish- 
ing House  against  the  Federal  government  for  use  of  its  prop- 
erty during  the  War  between  the  States.  The  sum  collected 
was  *2S8,000.  Much  gratification  was  felt  over  this  transac- 
tion, and  the  Agents  and  the  Book  Committee  were  warmly 
congratulated  upon  the  same.  One  could  not  then  have  fore- 
casted the  bitterness  of  the  storm  destined  a  little  later  to 
break  over  the  Church  on  account  of  certain  official  statements 
made  concerning  the  collection  of  this  indemnity,  and  particn 
larly  concerning  certain  actions  taken  thereupon  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  But  this  will  be  discussed  in  another  and  more 
exactly  chronological  connection.  This  is,  however,  a  fitting 
place  from  which  to  take  a  survey  of  the  past  history  of  that 
vast  concern  of  the  Church  known  as  its  "publishing  interests.*' 
largely  both  effective  and  expressive  of  its  life  and  the  results 
of  its  labors. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth -century  revival,  Meth 
odism  has  appreciated  the  value  of  the  printing  press  as  an 
evangelistic  agency.  Mr.  Wesley  used  the  press  freely  in  the 
publication  of  books,  tracts,  and  other  periodicals;  and  as 
Methodism  has  grown  into  many  different  ecclesiastical  con- 


History  of  the  Publishing  house 


149 


nections,  each  has  organized  its  own  agency  of  publication. 
The  history  of  the  publishing  enterprises  of  American  Meth- 
odism has  the  interest  of  a  romance.  Next  to  the  pulpit,  Hie 
Methodist  press  in  these  lands  has  been  a  source  of  power.  It 
was  effective  in  England;  it  has  been  doubly  so  in  America. 
Like  the  sun,  it  has  sent  forth  light  into  every  quarter;  it  has 
been  a  voice  of  exhortation,  of  admonition,  of  reproof,  of  warn- 
ing, heard  in  the  wilderness,  heard  in  the  village,  heard  in 
every  part  of  the  continent.  Tt  has  flowed  like  the  tides;  it 
has  glowed  like  the  stars;  it  has  been  dynamical  like  the  light- 
nings; it  has  been  nourishing  like  the  showers  of  rain.  But 
almost  as  marvelous  as  the  sum  of  its  accomplishments  is  the 
record  of  its  humble  and  quiet  beginning.  The  first  Methodist 
books  published  in  America  are  to  be  credited  to  Robert  Wil- 
liams, a  local  Wesleyan  preacher,  who  came  to  the  continent 
in  1769,  four  years  before  the  meeting  of  the  first  American 
Conference,  which  occurred  in  1773.  This  Conference  ordered 
that  no  books  should  be  published  in  the  name  of  the  Meth- 
odists without  official  consent.  From  that  date  to  1780  not  a 
few  imprints,  including  editions  of  the  Discipline,  minutes, 
hymnals,  and  other  official  books,  were  ordered  by  the  Confer- 
ence. It  was,  however,  not  until  the  latter  year  that  the  yearly 
Conference  determined  to  establish  an  official  printing  interest. 
This  interest  was  known  as  the  "Book  Concern,"  a  title  which 
did  not  appear  in  the  Conference  minutes  until  the  year  1792. 
To  John  Dickins,  a  native  of  England,  the  most  literary  man 
amongst  the  early  preachers  and  otherwise  capable,  the  work 
was  committed.  He  was  the  stationed  preacher  in  Philadel- 
phia, with  a  work  heavy  enough  for  one  man.  But  he  accepted 
the  additional  duties  of  Book  Steward  and,  willing  soul  that  he 
was,  served  in  that  post  also  and  without  additional  compen- 
sation. The  "book  rooms"  were  a  chamber  in  his  parsonage, 
which  was  itself  a  "hired  house."  He  loaned  the  institution 
|600  of  his  private  means,  and  that  was  the  capital  upon  which 
it  began  its  great  and  destiny-making  task.  For  ten  years 
Dickins  devoted  himself  to  his  duties  and  saw  "one  hundred 
and  fourteen  thousand  volumes  of  books"  go  out  from  the 
presses  which  he  hired  to  do  his  work.  During  his  incumbency 
the  Book  Concern  owned  no  presses  and  had  no  offices  or 


150 


History  of  Methodism. 


storehouse,  and  he,  with  little  assistance,  did  all  the  work  of 
every  character  which  the  post  demanded.  A  scourge  of  yel- 
low fever  visited  Philadelphia  in  the  late  summer  or  autumn 
of  1700,  and  the  faithful  Dickins  was  claimed  as  one  of  its  vic- 
tims. Ezekiel  Cooper  succeeded  and  continued  in  office  until 
1808.  The  General  Conference  of  1804  removed  the  offices 
from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  where  one  of  the  chief  pub- 
lishing plants  of  Methodism  has  since  existed.  The  business 
greatly  expanded  under  the  agency  of  Cooper;  and  when  he 
retired,  in  1808,  the  capital  invested  was  nearly  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  Cooper  was  succeeded  by  John  Wilson,  who  for  the 
four  previous  years  had  been  his  assistant.  Wilson,  who  had 
fine  gifts  and  possessed  a  considerable  degree  of  culture,  died 
in  1810  and  was  succeeded  by  Daniel  Hitt,  a  close  friend  and 
associate  of  Bishop  Asbury's.  He,  with  Thomas  Ware,  con- 
tinued the  work  up  to  the  General  Conference  of  1810,  when 
Joshua  Soule  was  called  to  take  up  the  enterprise,  which, 
though  it  had  enjoyed  no  little  prosperity,  was  now  arrived 
at  a  stage  where  great  skill  and  heroic  faith  must  be  used  to 
bring  it  through  depressing  conditions.  The  Concern  needed 
funds,  its  stock  was  old  and  all  but  valueless,  a  money  crisis 
was  on  in  the  commercial  world,  and  the  paper  of  the  Book 
Steward  could  not  be  discounted  in  New  York.  Soule  showed 
himself  the  man  of  providence.  He  placed  a  large  loan  in  a 
bank  in  Baltimore,  two  personal  friends  indorsing  for  him, 
and,  opening  up  new  books,  he  proceeded  to  rejuvenate  the 
Concern.  The  era  of  modern  Methodist  printing  and  publish- 
ing begins  with  his  administration.  He  carried  the  work  up 
to  1820  and  passed  to  the  hands  of  Nathan  Bangs  the  well- 
realized  beginnings  of  that  arm  of  service  which  was  one  of 
Methodism's  chief  means  of  propagation  during  the  nineteenth 
century.* 

In  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  division  of  the 
Church,  in  1844,  its  publishing  interests  had  assumed  large  pro- 
portions and  were  represented  by  two  flourishing  publishing 
houses,  the  one  located  in  Cincinnati,  the  other  in  New  York. 
The  Louisville  Convention,  which  organized  into  an  inde 


*"Life  of  Bishop  Joshua  Soule." 


Southern  Publishing  House. 


151 


pendent  jurisdiction  that  part  of  the  divided  Church  hence- 
forth to  be  known  as  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
elected  two  Book  Agents,  John  Early  and  J.  B.  McFerrin,  who 
held  office  until  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  184(>. 
In  pursuance  of  plans  presented,  as  is  supposed,  by  Early  and 
McFerrin,  this  Conference  provided  for  a  Publishing  Agency, 
naming  John  Early  as  incumbent.  It  also  ordered  depositories 
to  be  established  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  Rich- 
mond, Va.  The  work  of  these  depositories  appears  to  have  been 
limited  in  volume.  A  report  made  by  the  Book  Agents  in  1849 
shows  their  assets  to  have  totaled  only  $45,972.73,  while  their 
liabilities  were  placed  in  round  figures  at  the  sum  of  $29,000. 

There  had  arisen  difficulties  in  carrying  out  the  Plan  of  Sep- 
aration as  agreed  upon  in  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  and 
it  had  become  necessary  for  the  Southern  Church  to  enter  the 
United  States  courts  in  order  to  secure  an  equitable  division 
of  the  connectional  property  held  by  the  undivided  Church. 
The  legal  proceedings  were  concluded  in  a  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  handed  down  on  April  25, 
1854.  This  decision  awarded  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  cash  and  other  values  totaling  a  sum  of  $414,- 
000. 

When  the  General  Conference  met  in  May,  1854,  in  the  city 
of  Columbus,  Ga.,  it  had  before  it  competitive  propositions 
from  a  number  of  cities,  each  offering  valuable  considerations 
for  the  location  of  the  Publishing  House  within  its  limits. 
Memphis  and  Nashville  in  Tennessee,  Augusta  and  Columbus 
in  Georgia,  Prattville  in  Alabama,  New  Orleans  in  Louisiana, 
Louisville  in  Kentucky,  St.  Louis  in  Missouri,  and  Richmond 
in  Virginia,  presented  various  but  attractive  propositions. 
After  thoroughly  canvassing  all  the  offers,  the  Conference  de- 
cided to  accept  the  one  presented  by  Nashville,  Tenn.,  as  being 
on  the  whole  the  best  for  the  Church's  uses.  The  House  was, 
therefore,  located  at  Nashville.  Edward  Stevenson,  D.D.,  and 
James  E.  Evans,  D.D.,  were  elected  Publishing  Agents.  Dr. 
Evans  resigned  before  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office,  and 
Rev.  F.  A.  Owen,  D.D.,  was  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy. 

Shortly  after  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  1854 
the  Publishing  House  began  operations,  with  available  assets 


152 


History  of  Methodism. 


estimated  at  not  less  than  £386,000.  But  it  was  a  time  of  great 
financial  stress;  the  field  was  new,  and  the  House  had  to  organ- 
ize its  constituency.  When  the  General  Conference  of  1858  met, 
it  was  found  that  the  Publishing  House  was  in  financial  dif- 
ficulties, the  immediate  cause  being  a  sharp  money  panic  which 
fell  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  before.  It  was  then  that  the  of- 
fice of  Financial  Secretary  of  Publishing  Interests  was  created, 
and  Dr.  Richard  Abbey,  of  Mississippi,  was  elected  to  the 
place,  while  Dr.  John  B.  McFerrin  was  designated  to  be  Book 
Agent.  Dr.  McFerrin  was  thus  in  active  charge  of  the  Pub- 
lishing House  until  the  beginning  of  the  War  between  the 
States.  In  that  great  crisis  Dr.  Abbey  assumed  charge  and 
continued  to  be  the  custodian  of  the  property  until  the  meet- 
ing of  the  General  Conference  in  1866,  no  session  having  been 
held  in  1862.  As  we  have  seen,  the  House  was  occupied  and 
its  machinery  and  stock  were  used  by  the  United  States 
military  authorities  from  1862  to  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1865. 
Xear  the  end  of  the  latter  year  Dr.  McFerrin  made  a  visit  to 
Washington  City,  had  an  interview  with  President  Johnson, 
and  secured  from  him  an  order  for  the  immediate  restoration 
of  the  property  to  its  owners.  When  the  House  was  returned 
to  the  Church,  there  was  practically  nothing  left  except  the 
walls  and  the  roof  of  its  building,  the  machinery  having  been 
worn  out  or  destroyed  and  the  stock  used  in  military  print- 
ing. 

The  General  Conference  of  1866  elected  A.  H.  Bedford,  D.D.. 
of  Kentucky,  to  be  Publishing  Agent,  and  committed  to  him 
one  of  the  most  difficult  and  burdensome  tasks  ever  laid  upon 
mortal  man.  He  was  regularly  reelected  in  1870  and  1874.  and 
so  continued  in  charge  until  1878.  It  was  during  his  ad- 
ministration, in  1872,  that  the  Publishing  House  building  was 
entirely  destroyed  by  fire.  The  effect  of  this  disaster  was  most 
depressing  to  the  whole  Connection  ;  but  notwithstanding  the 
poverty  and  hardships  of  the  times,  the  people  of  the  Churches 
rose  bravely  to  the  situation,  and  a  new  and  commodious 
structure  soon  replaced  the  ruins  of  the  old.  Owing  to  many 
causes,  among  them  the  lack  of  proper  working  capital  and 
the  heavy  losses  through  the  fire,  the  House  did  not  prosj>er. 
When  the  General  Conference  met  in  Atlanta  in  1S7S.  the 


I  *  it  hi  i  siting  House  Debts. 


L53 


state  of  its  publication  interests  seemed  desperate.  A  thor- 
ough investigation  was  undertaken.  The  investigation  revealed 
the  fact  that  the  House  was  insolvent.  Its  assets  were  valued 
at  a  little  more  than  $230,000,  while  its  liabilities  amounted  to 
more  than  $350,000.  Dr.  J.  B.  McFerrin  was  named  as  Book 
Agent,  and  he,  with  the  Book  Committee,  was  virtually  in- 
structed to  wind  up  the  business,  provided  no  way  was  found 
to  save  and  continue  it,  of  which  at  that  time  there  seemed 
little  hope.  These  brethren  hit  upon  the  plan  of  issuing  $300,- 
000  in  four  per  cent  bonds,  running  thirty  to  forty  years,  the 
interest  payable  semiannually  on  the  1st  of  January  and  July, 
secured  by  first  mortgage  on  all  the  property  of  the  House. 
These  bonds  were  promptly  taken  by  the  Methodist  people,  and 
the  Publishing  House  was  saved  to  the  Church.  To  the  task  of 
liquidating  this  debt  the  members  of  the  Book  Committee  de- 
voted their  time  and  talents  without  stint.  They  also  per- 
sonally invested  large  sums  in  the  relief  bonds.  Their  names 
are  deserving  of  record  in  this  history.  They  are  as  follows: 
James  Whitworth,  President;  W.  H.  Morgan,  Secretary; 
Dempsey  Weaver,  T.  D.  Fite,  Nathaniel  Baxter,  William  Mor- 
row, E.  H.  East,  R.  K.  Hargrove,  R.  A.  Young,  John  A.  Carter, 
S.  H.  Dunscomb,  A.  G.  Haygood,  and  Allen  S.  Andrews. 

The  interest  on  these  bonds  was  promptly  paid,  and  the 
bonds  retired  through  repurchase  before  1902,  which  was  quite 
a  good  while  before  the  date  of  maturity.  In  August,  1878,  Mr. 
L.  D.  Palmer  was,  on  recommendation  of  ,Dr.  McFerrin,  em- 
ployed as  Business  Manager  of  the  House  and  rendered  faith- 
ful service  in  that  office  until  May,  1888,  when  he  resigned. 
Dr.  McFerrin  was  reelected  Agent  in  1882  and  1886  and  served 
with  characteristic  efficiency  until  his  death,  in  1887.  His  suc- 
cessor was  Dr.  James  D.  Barbee,  who  was  elected  by  the  Book 
Committee  in  July,  1887.  Under  Dr.  Barbee  the  House  ex- 
perienced the  greatest  degree  of  prosperity  which  it  had  known 
up  to  that  time  in  its  history.  In  1888,  on  the  nomination  of 
Dr.  Barbee,  Mr.  D.  M.  Smith  was  elected  Business  Manager. 
The  General  Conference  of  1800  provided  for  an  Assistant 
Book  Agent,  and  to  this  office  Mr.  Smith  succeeded.  Together 
with  Dr.  Barbee,  he  was  reelected  by  the  General  Conferences 
of  1804  and  1898.    It  was  during  the  latter  quadrennium  that 


154 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  Publishing  House's  claim  against  the  Federal  government 
was  allowed  and  paid,  as  noted  in  a  previous  paragraph. 

T)r.  Barbee  having  declined  to  stand  for  reelection,  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1002  designated  R.  J.  Bigham  and  D.  M. 
Smith  as  Agent  and  Assistant  Agent,  respectively.  In  July, 
1903,  Dr.  Bigham  resigned,  and  shortly  thereafter  the  Book 
Committee  advanced  Mr.  Smith  to  the  post  of  Agent  and 
named  Dr.  A.  J.  Lamar,  of  the  Alabama  Conference,  to  be 
Assistant.  The  General  Conference  of  1906,  recognizing  the 
increasing  responsibility  of  the  Agency,  provided  for  two  in- 
cumbents of  coordinate  functions  and  authority,  changing  the 
designation  to  that  of  Publishing  Agents.  Mr.  Smith  and  Dr. 
Lamar  were  reelected  at  this  sitting,  as  also  in  1010  and  1014. 
During  1004-05,  the  business  of  the  House  having  outgrown 
the  capacity  of  the  building  in  which  it  had  been  so  long  con- 
ducted, the  Agents  and  the  Book  Committee  projected  a  new 
and  larger  building  upon  another  site.  A  structure  planned 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  most  modern  needs  of  the  publish- 
ing business  was  erected  on  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Ninth 
Avenue,  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  in  which  the  business  of  the 
House  has  since  been  conducted.  Branch  Houses  have  been 
established  as  follows:  At  Shanghai,  China,  in  1808;  at  Dal- 
las. Tex.,  in  1800;  and  at  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1012.  All  these 
branches  are  in  successful  and  profitable  operation. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Everett,  who  was  named  as  manager  of  the  branch 
Publishing  House  at  Dallas,  has  continued  to  occupy  the  post 
and  has  made  a  record  of  great  efficiency.  Rev.  R.  P.  Wilson, 
D.D.,  who  had  been  for  a  number  of  years  editor  and  manager 
of  the  Pacific  Methodist  Advocate  and  was  well  known  as  an 
expert  bookman  and  as  possessed  of  fine  managerial  talent, 
was  put  by  the  Agents  and  Book  Committee  in  charge  of  the 
branch  House  in  China.  Mr.  Walter  Pierce  has  been  in  charge 
of  the  Richmond  branch  since  its  establishment.  He  had  com- 
mended himself  through  long  service  in  the  House  at  Nashville. 

The  latest  reports  of  the  holdings  of  the  Publishing  House 
put  its  assets  at  the  sum  of  f 1,404,040.48.  The  net  proceeds 
of  the  business  are  by  constitutional  provision  devoted  to  the 
relief  of  the  superannuates  of  the  Connection  and  to  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  its  preachers.   To  these  claimants  a  substantial 


Sunday  School  Literature. 


appropriation  is  paid  each  year.  The  General  Conference  of 
1914  gave  direction  for  the  removal  and  relocation  of  the  cen- 
tral Publishing  House  at  Nashville  when  the  Annual  Confer- 
ences shall  have  voted  upon  the  conditions  of  removal  and  the 
city  selected  for  the  new  location. 

To  no  section  of  its  periodical  publications  is  the  Church 
so  much  indebted  for  the  surprising  fiscal  prosperity  of  its 
Publishing  House  as  to  its  Sunday  school  literature.  Once 
developed  into  outline  and  detail,  the  Sunday  School  Depart- 
ment, through  its  literary  output,  has  not  only  fed  the  spiritual 
life  of  millions,  but  has  largely  supplied  the  sinews  of  war  for 
the  Church's  other  needed  and  purposeful  publication  cam- 
paigns. Organized  Methodism  in  America  and  the  Sunday 
school  movement  practically  began  together.  To  Bishop  As- 
bury  is  due  the  distinction  of  having  first  used  the  Sunday 
school  idea  in  America  and,  indeed,  of  having  organized  the 
first  Sunday  school  on  the  continent.  In  the  Old  World  this 
honor  is  also  due  to  John  Wesley,  who  anticipated  Robert 
Raikes  in  that  field  by  several  years.  The  earliest*  book  of 
Discipline  (1785)  gives  directions  for  the  holding  of  wreekly 
meetings  for  the  instruction  of  children  of  Methodist  parents 
and  prescribes  a  book  for  use  in  such  meetings.  These  meet- 
ings were  generally  held  on  the  Sabbath.  The  directions  given 
are  as  follows:  " Where  there  are  ten  children  whose  parents 
are  in  society,  meet  them  an  hour  once  a  week ;  but  where  this 
is  impracticable,  meet  them  once  in  two  weeks.  Procure  our 
instructions  for  them  and  let  all  who  can  read  and  commit 
them  to  memory.  Explain  them  and  impress  them  upon  their 
hearts.'* 

In  the  Conference  of  1784  was  asked  and  answered  this 
question : 

What  can  be  done  for  the  rising  generation? 

Let  the  elders,  deacons,  and  helpers  place  the  children  of  our  friends 
in  proper  classes  as  far  as  it  is  practicable,  meet  them  as  far  as  possible, 
and  commit  them  during  their  absence  into  the  care  of  proper  persons 
who  may  meet  them  at  least  weekly. 

In  a  yet  later  Conference  this  conversation  is  reported  as 
having  occurred : 


156 


History  of  Methodism. 


What  can  be  done  to  instruct  poor  children,  white  and  black,  to  read? 

Let  us  labor  as  the  heart  and  soul  of  one  man  to  establish  Sunday 
schools  in  or  near  the  place  of  public  worship.  Let  persons  be  appoint- 
ed by  the  bishops,  elders,  deacons,  or  preachers  to  teach  gratis  all  who 
will  attend  and  who  have  a  capacity  to  learn  from  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  ten  and  from  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  till  six,  where  it 
does  not  interfere  with  public  worship.  The  Council*  shall  compile  a 
proper  schoolbook  to  teach  them  learning  and  piety. 

The  tenth  edition  of  the  Discipline,  bearing  date  of  1700 
and  compiled  by  Francis  Asbury  and  Thomas  (Joke,  calls  for 
the  establishment  of  Sunday  schools  in  fulfillment  of  the  dis- 
ciplinary requirement.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Methodist 
Sunday  schools  are  rather  a  development  from  the  original 
children's  classes  than  a  succession  of  the  ideals  obtaining  in 
the  original  Robert  Raikes  movement.  "Methodist  Sunday 
schools,  therefore,  are  indebted  to  the  Raikes  movement  for 
their  name  only;  for  their  aim,  curriculum  of  study,  and  pro- 
gram, they  are  indebted  to  the  religious-educational  purpose 
and  program  of  the  Church,  first  expressed  in  the  children's 
meeting."!  It  was  the  dominance  of  this  ideal  that  led  the 
General  Conference  of  1824  to  order  the  preparation  of  a 
catechism  and  other  textbooks  for  Methodist  Sunday  schools. 
A  further  step  in  this  evolution  was  the  organization  of  the 
Sunday  School  Union  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  In 
1840  a  charter  was  prepared  for  this  Union,  under  which  it 
operated  for  a  number  of  years. 

The  first  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  held  in  Petersburg,  Va..  in  May,  1846,  ap- 
pointed a  Committee  on  Sunday  Schools.  No  great  changes, 
however,  were  made  in  existing  rules  and  plans,  and  the  Sun- 
day schools  of  the  Church  continued  to  work  on  under  the 
scheme  of  the  old  Sunday  School  Union.  At  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1850,  held  in  St.  Louis,  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
were  instructed  to  "recommend  everywhere  to  heads  of  fami- 
lies connected  with  our  Church  to  form  their  children  and 
servants  into  Sunday  schools  in  all  such  places  as  are  removed 

♦The  Council  was  an  early  device  for  the  administration  of  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Connection.  It  preceded  the  General  Conference  of  1792 
and  consisted  of  the  bishops  and  a  number  of  elders. 

f'The  Encyclopedia  of  Sunday  Schools  and  Religious  Education." 


The  Sunday  School  (In ion. 


L57 


from  our  regular  Sunday  schools."  This  Conference  also  or- 
dered the  formation  of  a  connectional  Sunday  School  Union, 
ordered  a  Sunday  school  journal  to  be  published  at  Charles- 
toil,  S.  C,  and  elected  an  editor  who  was  to  edit  all  Sunday 
school  publications.  This  editor  was  Dr.  Thomas  O.  Summers, 
and  the  publication  which  was  then  launched  was  the  lineal 
predecessor  of  the  Sunday  School  Visitor,  so  widely  known  in 
the  Connection  to-day. 

A  strong  committee,  with  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce  as  chairman, 
was  constituted  by  the  General  Conference  of  1854  thorough 
ly  to  consider  the  whole  Sunday  school  subject.  In  then- 
report  this  committee  said:  "We  are  satisfied  that  to  a  very 
great  extent  the  future  success  of  all  evangelical  Churches, 
especially  in  the  older  States  and  more  established  congrega- 
tions, must  and  will  be  in  almost  exact  proportion  to  the  wise 
and  Scriptural  indoctrination  of  the  youthful  mind,  and  that 
this  seeding  of  the  mind  must  be  effected  chiefly  in  the  nur- 
sery and  the  Sunday  school.  The  idea  that  we  can  permanent- 
ly enlarge  and  establish  the  Church  we  represent  by  merely 
a  missionary  system  of  preaching  is,  in  our  opinion,  entirely 
Utopian.  In  such  portions  of  our  great  field  of  labor  (the 
older  States)  we  must  look  for  sound  conversions  more  as  the 
blessed  sequence  of  a  system  of  thorough  religious  education 
than  as  a  result  of  those  sudden  and  overwhelming  conver- 
sions which  characterized  those  times  when  such  training  was 
impossible.  ...  In  the  present  state  of  society  we  regard 
Sunday  schools  as  indispensable  to  carrying  out  the  will  of 
God  as  expressed  in  his  Word  regarding  the  indoctrination  of 
the  youthful  mind  with  evangelical  truth."  The  committee 
ended  by  presenting  a  constitution  for  the  government  of  a 
Sunday  school  society.  The  report  was  adopted,  and  a  board 
of  managers,  consisting  of  sixty-eight  members,  was  appointed. 
This  scheme  had  not  had  time  to  demonstrate  its  practicability 
when  the  years  of  the  war  left  it  a  wreck,  with  much  of  the  rest 
of  the  Church's  machinery. 

In  1866,  the  year  of  nearly  all  beginnings,  provision  was 
made  for  a  "suitable  and  appropriate  liturgical  service  for  the 
opening  and  closing  of  religious  exercises  in  the  Sunday 
schools;  a  new  series  of  catechisms  was  provided  for.  These 


158 


History  of  Methodism. 


catechisms  were  to  be  doctrinal,  with  special  reference  to  Wes- 
leyan  teachings,  and  "graduated  to  the  several  stages  of  the 
learners."  The  Sunday  School  Visitor,  the  publication  of  which 
had  been  for  several  years  suspended,  was  revived;  sacred 
music  was  ordered  to  be  made  a  feature  of  Sunday  schools; 
and  the  Book  Editor  was  directed  to  prepare  suitable  song 
books  for  use.  He  was  also  directed  to  prepare  a  list  of  books 
to  be  used  as  a  Sunday  school  library  and  from  time  to  time 
add  such  volumes  thereto  as  were  calculated  to  increase  its  at- 
tractiveness and  usefulness.  A  decidedly  forward  step  was 
taken  in  1870  when  the  General  Conference  elected  a  Sunday 
School  Secretary,  to  whom  was  committed  the  direction  of  the 
entire  department  of  Sunday  school  literature  and  requisites, 
lie  was  directed  to  select  and  recommend  the  best  system  of 
uniform  lessons  to  be  procured.  Dr.  A.  G.  Haygood  was  named 
for  this  responsible  post  and  immediately  went  about  the  diffi- 
cult task  in  a  way  that  soon  brought  order  and  system  out  of 
what  had  become  chaos.  The  Berean  course  of  lessons  was 
adopted  and  became  the  antecedent  of  the  International  Uni- 
form Lessons  of  to-day,  together  with  their  more  recent  develop- 
ment known  as  the  Graded  Series.  Before  the  end  of  Dr.  Hay- 
good's  term  of  office,  a  distinct  prophecy  had  been  made  of  the 
splendid  success  which  has  attended  our  Sunday  school  work 
in  later  decades. 

The  title  of  Sunday  School  Secretary  was  changed  to  that 
of  Sunday  School  Editor  by  the  General  Conference  of  1878. 
A  new  and  compact  arrangement  was  settled  upon  to  meet  the 
new  conditions.  A  Sunday  School  Board,  consisting  of  six 
members,  with  the  Sunday  School  Editor  as  chairman,  was 
constituted,  to  have  charge  of  all  connectional  Sunday  school 
interests.  Few  radical  changes  have  been  made  in  this  early 
settled  device  of  administration.  One  high,  persistent  ideal 
has  been  steadily  followed — namely,  that  of  making  the  Sun- 
day school  what  it  was  designed  to  be,  a  means  of  leading 
children  to  Christ  and  of  developing  their  Christian  characters. 
The  administration  of  the  Board  has  greatly  stimulated  the 
Sunday  school  and  increased  its  influence  for  good.  To  its 
original  plans  it  has  in  more  recent  years  added  the  Teacher- 
Training  Department  and  that  of  the  Wesley  Adult  Bible  Class. 


"Children's  Day" — Sunday  School  Board.  1 59 


A  great  institution  has  also  been  created  in  what  is  known  as 
Children's  Day,  a  day  which  has  become  a  festival  throughoul 
Methodism.  On  that  day  a  large  fund  is  annually  raised  for 
the  extension  of  Sunday  schools  in  destitute  parts  and  for 
other  missionary  extension.  The  General  Conference  of  1906 
authorized  the  establishment  of  a  "Chair  of  Religious  Pedagogy 
and  Sunday  Schools"  in  Vanderbilt  University  and  directed 
that  $50,000  should  be  raised  for  this  purpose.  The  unhappy 
conditions  which  have  obtained  in  connection  with  Vanderbilt 
University  since  that  time  have  rendered  this  plan  abortive; 
but  with  the  happier  educational  program  which  has  emerged 
in  the  Church  it  may  be  expected  that  the  idea  will  experience 
enlargement,  rather  than  decrease,  in  connection  with  the  two 
great  universities  now  in  process  of  evolution. 

A  thorough  reorganization  of  the  Sunday  School  Depart- 
ment was  undertaken  at  the  General  Conference  of  1914.  The 
work  was  at  that  time  committed  to  a  Board  "composed  of 
one  effective  bishop,  ten  traveling  preachers,  and  ten  laymen." 
To  these  wrere  added  the  following-named  ex  officio  members: 
The  Sunday  School  Editor,  the  Assistant  Sunday  School  Ed- 
itor, the  Superintendent  of  Teacher-Training,  the  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Wesley  Adult  Bible  Class  Department,  the  Educa- 
tional Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  and  such  other  gen- 
eral officers  as  the  Board  may  elect. 

This  organization  extends  into  the  Annual  Conferences. 
Each  Annual  Conference  is  directed  to  appoint  a  Sunday  School 
Board,  to  be  composed  of  one  layman  from  each  district  and  an 
equal  number  of  traveling  ministers.  They  are  also  empow- 
ered to  employ  a  Conference  Field  Secretary  or  such  other 
worker  as  may  be  deemed  necessary.  The  Conference  Boards 
hold  anniversaries  in  connection  with  the  sessions  of  the  An- 
nual Conferences.  Sunday  school  institutes  are  also  held  in 
connection  with  the  District  Conferences,  or  at  any  time  the 
presiding  elder  may  appoint.  The  Quarterly  Conference  has 
the  management  and  oversight  of  Sunday  schools  in  the  local 
congregation.  The  following-named  periodicals  are  regularly 
issued  by  the  Sunday  School  Board :  Sunday  School  Magazine, 
Senior,  Intermediate,  Junior,  and  Home  Department  Quarter- 
lies, Primary  Teacher,  Our  Little  People,  Olivet  Picture  Cards, 


160 


History  of  Methodism, 


Adult  Student j  Visitor  (an  eight-page  weekly),  and  Boys  and 
Girls  (a  four-page  weekly).  To  this  list  is  to  be  added  the 
Graded  Lessons.  The  combined  circulation  of  these  publica- 
tions is  millions  of  copies  annually.  During  its  history  the 
Sunday  School  Department  of  the  Church  has  had  the  follow- 
ing-named regularly  elected  heads — to  wit:  Dr.  Thomas  O. 
Summers  was  from  1846  to  1S70  editor  of  all  the  Sunday  school 
publications.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  A.  G. 
Haygood,  afterwards  made  bishop,  who  served  until  1S75.  The 
successor  of  Dr.  Haygood  was  Dr.  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  who 
served  in  the  office  for  nineteen  years.  Dr.  W.  D.  Kirkland  was 
elected  in  1894,  but  died  during  the  quadrennium,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Dr.  James  Atkins,  who  continued  incumbent  until 
his  election  to  the  episcopacy,  in  1006.  His  successor  was  Dr. 
E.  B.  Chappell,  the  present  incumbent,  who  has  carried  the 
work  of  his  department  to  a  point  of  almost  unrivaled  excel- 
lence. The  names  of  Rev.  J.  A.  Lyons,  Dr.  L.  F.  Beaty,  and  Dr. 
Charles  D.  Bulla,  as  faithful  administrators  of  subdepartments 
in  the  general  Sunday  school  work,  are  due  a  place  in  these  rec- 
ords. Mr.  J.  L.  Kirby,  the  long-time  efficient  assistant  in  the 
Book  Editor's  office,  was  the  first  and  (with  but  one  exception 
during  a  brief  space)  the  only  assistant  to  Dr.  Haygood  for 
three  years  of  his  term  as  head  of  the  Sunday  School  Depart- 
ment, and  to  Dr.  Cunnyngham  in  the  same  office  for  nineteen 
years — an  unbroken  service  of  twenty-two  years.  That  and  his 
twenty-two  years  of  work  in  the  Book  Editor's  office  make  a 
record  unparalleled  in  the  Church. 


CHAPTEE  X. 


The  Christian  Advocate — Death  of  Dr.  David  Morton — Board  of  Church 
Extension — Leaders  of  the  Period — World's  Missionary  Conference — 
Twenty-Third  Delegated  General  Conference,  Church  North — An  In- 
ter-Methodist Document — Proceedings  of  Conference — Church  of  Can- 
ada—English Connection— 1898-1901  (Concluded). 

THE  publication  which  has  been  inseparably  associated 
with  the  Publishing  House  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  since  its  first  establishment,  though  long  ante- 
dating it,  is  the  Christian  Advocate,  the  official  organ  of  the 
Connection.  Nearly  the  earliest  weekly  periodical  of  the  undi- 
vided Church,  and  the  publication  of  which  was  begun  in  New 
York  in  1826,  was  called  the  Christian  Advocate.  With  it  was 
combined  in  1828  the  Wesleyan  Journal,  of  Charleston,  S.  C, 
and  Zion's  Herald,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  with  Nathan  Bangs  as  ed- 
itor. Later  the  Herald  was  reestablished  on  its  old  foundation 
at  Boston,  and  the  New  York  publication  continued  as  the  Ad- 
vocate and  Journal.  The  demand  for  journalistic  representa- 
tion in  an  ever-growing  field  caused  the  General  Conference 
which  met  at  Cincinnati  in  1836  to  establish  at  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate.  Of  this  paper 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Stringfield,  of  the  Holston  Conference,  was 
made  editor.  He  gave  a  quadrennium  of  time  and  labor  to  the 
editorship,  but  in  1840  declined  reelection.  Stringfield  was  a 
man  well  informed  in  the  doctrines  and  history  of  the  Church, 
was  well  trained  for  the  times,  and  was  effectively  read  in 
general  literature.  He  had  a  turn  toward  controversy  and 
was  an  antagonist  to  be  respected.  The  Advocate  acquired 
character  and  influence  under  his  direction. 

In  1840  Dr.  John  B.  McFerrin,  through  the  nomination  of  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  was  elected  to  fill  the  Advocate's  vacant 
editorial  chair.  Being  successively  reelected,  he  remained  in  this 
post  for  eighteen  years,  or  until  1858,  a  date  far  past  the  di- 
vision of  the  Church.  The  General  Conference  of  1846  changed 
the  name  of  the  paper  from  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate 
to  that  of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate  and  appointed  Rev. 
Moses  M.  Henkle  as  assistant  editor.  Henkle  later  became 
11  (161) 


162 


History  oj  Methodism, 


editor  of  that  interesting  old-time  monthly  known  as  the  Lady's 
Companion.  Dr.  McFerrin  being  elected  to  the  Book  Agency 
in  1858,  Dr.  Holland  N.  McTyeire,  who  had  already  made 
editorial  reputation  on  the  New  Orleans  Advocate,  was  elected 
to  the  editorship  of  the  Advocate  at  Nashville.  At  the  same 
time  another  change  was  made  in  the  title  of  the  paper.  The 
Church  having  permanently  established  publication  headquar- 
ters in  the  capital  of  Tennessee,  the  weekly  journal  printed 
there  was  recognized  as  the  "official  organ"  of  the  Connection. 
The  word  "Nashville"  was,  therefore,  dropped  from  its  title 
lines,  and  it  was  henceforth  to  be  known  as  the  Christian  Ad- 
vocate. We  have  already  seen  how  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Mc- 
Tyeire was  interrupted  by  the  Federal  invasion  and  the  com- 
mandeering of  the  Publishing  House  and  its  presses.  When 
the  General  Conference  met  in  1806,  Dr.  McTyeire  was  made 
bishop,  and  Dr.  Thomas  O.  Summers,  of  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence, was  chosen  to  be  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate.  Dr. 
Summers  was  incumbent  until  1878,  when  he  was  elected  Book 
Editor,  and  was  succeeded  on  the  Advocate  by  Dr.  O.  P.  Fitz- 
gerald, of  the  Pacific  Conference.  Dr.  Fitzgerald's  editorship 
extended  over  a  period  of  twelve  years,  when  in  1800  he  was 
elected  to  the  episcopacy,  being  succeeded  in  the  editorship 
by  Dr.  E.  E.  Hoss,  whose  term  in  office  also  measured  out 
twelve  consecutive  years.  Dr.  George  B.  Winton  succeeded 
to  the  editorship  in  1002  and  after  eight  years  was  followed  by 
Dr.  Thomas  X.  Ivey,  the  editor  incumbent.  Thus  is  traced  in 
briefest  outline  the  eighty  years'  history  of  the  Church's  official 
organ.  In  all  these  years  it  has  been  to  Methodism  as  a  ban- 
ner, an  ensign,  leading  to  battle  and  to  victory. 

The  election  of  a  new  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension  in  1808  sadly  recalled  the  death,  less  than  two 
months  before  the  session  of  the  Conference,  of  Rev.  David 
Morton,  D.D.,  the  man  with  whose  life  that  movement  in  the 
Chnrch  had  been  identified  from  the  day  of  its  beginning.  Few 
men  so  fully  held  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  Church,  and 
few.  if  any,  had  ever  more  completely  justified  that  confidence. 
Born  in  Russell ville,  Ky..  June  4.  1833,  he  received  a  liberal 
,  training  in  the  very  fine  school  kept  in  his  native  place  by  Pro- 
fessor Wines.    His  father  being  a  prosperous  business  man  of 


David  Morton — Church  Extension  1<>:J 


broad  intellectual  vision,  he  profited  in  a  practical  and  educa- 
tional way  by  being  employed  in  the  management  of  the  family 
interests.  His  knowledge  of  public  affairs  was  widened  by 
reason  of  a  period  of  service  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  Logan 
County.  Both  his  parents  were  deeply  religious,  and  his  con- 
version occurred  logically  at  an  early  age.  It  was  at  a  com- 
munion service  in  1851  that  his  religious  experience  came  to 
be  consciously  complete,  and  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Christian 
ministry.  In  1852  he  received  a  license  to  preach  and  in  185.°> 
was  received  on  trial  into  the  Louisville  Annual  Conference. 
Only  ten  years  of  his  ministerial  life  were  spent  in  the  pas- 
torate, a  portion  of  which  time  was  given  in  Montana  and  else- 
where to  concerns  of  the  kingdom  which  needed  his  help.  He 
was  the  founder  of  Logan  Female  College,  an  institution  of  the 
Church  in  his  native  city.  To  this  and  to  other  like  educational 
enterprises  he  gave  tireless  devotion  and  wise  oversight.  His 
experience  in  the  West  matured  and  broadened  his  always 
catholic  sympathies,  enlarged  his  views  of  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  continent,  and  fitted  him  for  the  work  of  leading  the 
Connection  in  the  incipient  Church  Extension  Movement.  He 
returned  from  Montana  sometime  before  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1878,  filled  with  a  vision  of  the  new  enterprise;  but 
the  idea  was  not  sufficiently  advanced  in  the  Connection  to  be 
realized  in  Conference  action.  During  the  four  years  ensuing 
plans  for  such  an  organization  were  discussed ;  while  in  the 
Montana  and  other  Western  Conferences  local  Church  exten- 
sion was  organized.  But  the  first  official  record  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  Extension  Movement  is  found  in  the  Journal  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1882  and  is  as  follows : 

I.  There  shall  he  a  Board  of  Church  Extension,  consisting  of  a  Presi- 
dent, Vice  President,  Corresponding  Secretary,  Treasurer,  and  thirteen 
Managers,  to  be  elected  quadrennially  by  the  General  Conference  and 
to  continue  in  office  until  their  successors  are  elected  and  accept.  The 
bishops  shall  be  ex  officio  members  of  the  Board.  The  Board  shall  fill 
all  vacancies  that  may  occur  during  the  intervals  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence. 

II.  The  officers  elected  by  this  General  Conference  shall,  as  soon  as 
practicable,  procure,  under  the  general  or  special  law  of  the  State  of 
Kentucky,  an  incorporation,  whereby  they  and  their  successors  in  of- 
fice, in  perpetual  succession,  shall  be  made  a  body  corporate  under  the 


164 


History  of  Methodism. 


name  of  "Board  of  Church  Extension,"  with  powers  of  contracting 
and  being  contracted  writh,  suing  and  being  sued,  and  all  other  powers 
deemed  necessary  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  work  not  in- 
consistent with  these  articles. 

Dr.  Morton  was  elected  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  new 
Board  and  was  thereafter  regularly  returned  to  this  post  by 
the  vote  of  those  General  Conferences  which  met  before  his 
death.  He  lacked  but  a  few  months  of  completing  twelve  years 
of  service  in  what  was  in  a  double  sense  the  crowning  work 
of  his  life.  In  his  book,  "David  Morton  :  A  Biography,"  Bishop 
E.  E.  Hoss  says : 

When  Mr.  Morton  entered  upon  his  office,  he  had  nothing  but  the  au- 
thority of  the  Church  with  which  to  start.  Two  great  tasks  lay  before 
him:  First,  to  organize  his  office;  and,  second,  to  secure  funds  for  carry- 
ing out  the  enterprise  in  hand.  Neither  of  these  tasks  was  light.  If  his 
business  capacity  had  been  smaller,  he  would  have  failed.  But  he 
knew  how  to  begin  intelligently,  and  in  less  than  a  year  he  had  every- 
thing running  on  definite  schedules.  .  .  .  The  charter  which  he 
obtained  from  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  and  which  was  drawn  up 
under  his  eye,  if  not  by  his  hand,  is  an  ideal  one.  When  the  Com- 
mission on  Charters,  appointed  by  the  General  Conference  of  1914,  went 
through  it  a  few  months  ago,  it  did  not  find  a  single  defect  in  it  nor 
make  a  single  suggestion  in  the  way  of  altering  and  improving. 

The  experience  of  Dr.  Morton  from  this  time  forward  be- 
came one  of  almost  unparalleled  activity.  High-pressure  office 
work,  wide  circuits  of  travel  covered  on  railway  trains  in 
church  enterprising  and  supervision,  and,  in  addition  to  his 
own  particular  task,  participation  in  many  kinds  of  connec 
tional  and  evangelistic  responsibilities,  drew  heavily  upon  his 
frame,  though  organized,  like  that  of  Atlas,  to  bear  up  celes- 
tial burdens,  and  at  last  exhausted  it. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Church  in  organizing  the  Board  was 
early  and  fully  vindicated,  as  was  also  the  wisdom  of  the 
Board's  management.  At  the  end  of  its  first  year  it  was  able 
to  report  the  building  of  four  hundred  and  fifty-one  "Exten- 
sion" churches,  distributed  not  only  over  large  sections  of  the 
South,  but  in  many  parts  of  the  Far  West.  These  numbers 
have  grown  into  thousands  and  thousands  in  the  years  connect- 
ing that  beginning  with  the  present.  Soon  after  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  Extension  Board  the  women  of  the  Church, 


Miss  Helm — The  Two  Andrewses — Boswcll — Callaway.  165 


led  chiefly  by  Miss  Lucinda  B.  Helm,  of  Kentucky,  asked  to  be 
permitted  to  share  in  the  work.  To  this  request  Dr.  .Morton 
gave  ready  and  sympathetic  interest  and  directed  the  matter 
with  such  skill  as  to  bring  about  the  organization  of  the  Wom- 
an's Parsonage  Aid  Society,  which  later  became  a  separate 
department  known  as  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Board,  but 
still  later  to  be  absorbed  in  the  general  missionary  organiza- 
tion. 

For  nearly  half  a  century  the  Methodism  of  Alabama  was 
blessed  with  the  labors  of  two  distinguished  men  of  the  same 
name,  but  not  related  in  blood.  These  were  Allen  S.  Andrews, 
D.D.,  and  Mark  S.  Andrews,  D.D.  Both  having  lived  beyond 
the  age  of  threescore  and  ten,  their  deaths  occurred  within  a 
few  months  of  each  other,  in  1898.  Both  were  men  of  rare 
natural  gifts  and  of  scholarly  attainments,  both  were  emi- 
nent in  the  pulpit,  and  both  were  leaders  in  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tian education.  Dr.  A.  S.  Andrews  was  at  one  time  President 
of  the  Southern  University,  at  Greensboro,  and  later  editor  of 
the  Alabama  Christian  Advocate.  Both  were  prominent  in 
many  sessions  of  the  General  Conference,  and  both  represented 
the  Connection  in  the  Ecumenical  Conferences  of  their  day. 
The  memorials  of  their  lives  abide. 

On  April  12,  1898,  in  his  home,  at  Macon,  Tenn.,  died  Thomas 
L.  Boswell,  D.D.,  a  member  of  the  Memphis  Conference,  in  the 
eighty-second  year  of  his  age.  Dr.  Boswell  was  in  his  day  dis- 
tinguished as  a  preacher  and  leader  in  the  Connection.  Both 
in  the  Annual  Conference  and  in  the  general  gatherings  his  in- 
fluence as  a.  man  of  exceptional  sanctity  and  wisdom  was  felt 
and  acknowledged.  His  son,  the  Rev.  John  W.  Boswell,  D.D., 
has  filled  many  places  of  importance  in  the  Church  and  is  one 
of  the  best  known  of  our  living  connectional  editors. 

The  men  who  earliest  gave  themselves  to  the  work  of  per- 
sonally teaching  in  the  schools  established  by  the  Church  for 
colored  education  were  thought  to  practice  no  common  quality 
of  self-denial.  And,  indeed,  the  observation  was  not  without 
reason.  The  first  President  of  Paine  College,  the  Church's 
school  meant  for  the  education  of  colored  preachers,  was  Mor- 
gan Callawray,  D.D.,  who  died  at  Oxford,  Ga.,  January  16,  1899. 
Dr.  Callaway  was  born  in  Washington,  Ga.,  September  16, 


166 


History  oj  Methodism. 


1831.  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Church.  In  education  and  general  fitness  he  was  marked  for 
the  work  of  a  teacher;  and,  with  the  exception  of  three  or 
four  years  in  the  pastorate,  the  Church  kept  him  busy  w  ith  the 
cause  of  education.  At  first  he  was  President  of  Andrew  Fe- 
male College,  Cuthbert,  Ga.;  later  he  succeeded  to  the  presi- 
dency of  La  Grange  College  and  then  to  a  professorship  in,  and 
the  vice  presidency  of,  Emory  College,  where  his  greatest  work 
was  done  and  where  he  remained  until  called  upon  to  take  up 
the  already-mentioned  new  and  untested  work  of  colored  edu- 
cation. Through  his  loyalty  to  the  Master  and  the  sublime 
sacrifices  of  his  life  he  purchased  to  himself  a  good  degree 
and  left  behind  him  an  enduring  memory. 

More,  perhaps,  than  any  other  modern  branch  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  Methodism  has  depended  for  its  propagation  and 
success  upon  the  single  work  of  preaching.  It  is,  therefore, 
a  most  natural  consequence  that  it  has  produced  men  whose 
whole  thought  and  concern  have  moved  to  the  end  of  preach- 
ing; men  whose  supreme  distinction  has  been  that  of  being 
preachers.  Robert  Newton  Sledd,  D.D.,  a  member  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference,  who  died  May  15,  1809,  was  a  type  of  this 
personal  greatness  in  Methodism.  With  talents  and  culture 
that  would  have  fitted  him  for  any  calling,  he  gave  himself  to 
the  work  of  the  pastorate  and  the  pulpit.  Joining  the  Virginia 
Conference  in  1857,  he  spent  forty-two  years  in  the  ministry, 
all  in  the  bounds  of  one  Conference.  Half  of  this  long  min- 
istry was  given  to  three  Churches.  From  1878  to  1808  he  was 
a  member  of  each  succeeding  General  Conference.  In  1802  he 
received  a  vote  for  the  episcopal  office  which  lacked  but  a  few 
points  of  election.  In  connection  with  his  pastoral  work  he 
for  several  -  years  conducted  a  widely  circulated  preachers' 
journal  known  as  the  Theological  and  Homiletical  Monthly. 
His  biographer  says  of  him:  "His  style  was  clear,  chaste,  ele- 
gant, rising  at  times  to  a  lofty  beauty,  but  never  loaded  with 
verbiage  nor  encumbered  with  too  much  illustration ;  .  .  . 
a  pleasant  voice,  always  under  control,  never  disagreeably 
loud;  a  manner  dignified,  solemn,  in  good  taste,  animated, 
and  without  extravagance."  His  son.  Dr.  Andrew  Sledd,  has 
recently  been  called  to  a  chair  in  the  new  Emory  University. 


Richardson — Vordenbaumen — Cunnyngham. 


167 


An  itinerant  who  combined  some  of  the  qualities  of  Jesse 
Lee  and  Lorenzo  Dow  and  who  exhibited  much  of  the  spirit  of 
Peter  Cartwright  was  Simon  Peter  Richardson,  known  as  the 
"model"  which  so  powerfully  and  effectively  influenced  the 
career  of  that  marvelous  evangelist  and  lecturer,  Sam  P.  Jones. 
Simon  Peter  Richardson  had  a  style  and  manner  which  gave 
peculiar  emphasis  and  vitality  to  his  message.  Possessed  of 
profound  convictions,  fearless  and  original,  he  left  a  trail  of 
fire  through  his  ministry  of  fifty  years.  He  was  born  May 
13,  1818,  and  died  June  1G,  1899.  The  fervor  of  his  spirit  and 
the  directness  of  his  testimony  live  in  the  ministry  of  many  of 
his  successors.  An  autobiographical  sketch,  giving  the  rich 
experiences  and  engaging  details  of  the  story  of  his  long  min- 
istry, has  been  widely  read  by  the  present  generation. 

It  was  in  this  year  (1899)  that  the  German  Conference  was 
called  upon  to  mourn  the  death  of  its  patriarch,  the  Rev. 
Frederick  Vordenbaumen.  Born  in  Bergholzhausen,  Germany, 
July  17,  1824,  he  came  in  early  life  to  America.  A  formal 
member  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  he  was  in  1849  soundly  con- 
verted. At  this  time  his  residence  was  in  Galveston,  Tex., 
where  four  years  later  he  became  a  preacher,  joined  the  Meth- 
odist Conference,  and  was  honored  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Church's  German  work  in  the  great  State  of  Texas.  His  singu- 
lar piety  and  his  loyalty  to  the  standards  of  the  Church  helped 
to  give  character  to  the  devotion  and  faithfulness  of  the  Ger- 
man Methodists  which  has  distinguished  them  through  many 
years. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  service  rendered  the 
Sunday  School  Department  of  the  Church  by  the  Rev.  William 
G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  D.D.,  one  of  the  early  editors  of  its  litera- 
ture. This  service  was  eminent  and  successful,  coming  at  a 
time  when  the  interest  to  which  it  was  given  was  but  begin- 
ning to  take  shape,  both  from  the  waste  of  war  and  under  the 
exactions  of  new  and  testing  standards.  The  life  of  this  godly 
and  useful  man  went  out  on  the  rising  tide  of  the  new  cen- 
tury March  31,  1900,  he  being  then  in  his  seventieth  year.  His 
father,  the  Rev.  Jesse  Cunnyngham,  of  North  Carolina,  was 
one  of  the  pioneer  preachers  of  Methodism  and  one  whose  name 
is  embalmed  in  an  especially  blessed  memory.    The  simple, 


168 


History  of  Methodism. 


beautiful  sketch  of  the  son  appearing  in  the  General  Minutes 
concludes  with  these  words :  ''His  faith  was  strong  and  steady 
and  his  spirit  as  serene  as  the  stars.  It  may  be  said  of  him 
now,  as  was  said  of  him  at  fifty-six  annual  sessions  of  the  Con- 
ference :  'There  is  nothing  against  him.' " 

Another  name  amongst  those  who  during  these  years  shared 
in  the  advanced  activities  and  leadership  of  the  Connection 
remains  to  be  written  in  the  roll  of  the  dead.  Thomas  M.  Fin- 
ney, D.D.,  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference,  whose  death  occurred 
October  1,  1900,  belonged  to  the  type  of  men  in  the  ministry 
who  are  properly  described  as  "administrators."  He  possessed 
no  striking  pulpit  powers,  but  as  pastor  and  presiding  elder 
showed  himself  a  man  of  "the  fullest  foresight  and  strongest 
business  sense."  His  ministry  of  fifty  years  was  spent  largely 
in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  wmere  he  was  instrumental  in  build- 
ing many  of  the  churches  of  that  great  district.  For  a  num- 
ber of  years  he  edited  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate,  during 
which  time  he  secured  the  funds  with  which  was  established 
the  Southwestern  Book  and  Publishing  Company,  a  collateral 
Methodist  printing  enterprise.  To  the  cause  of  Christian  edu- 
cation he  rendered  valuable  service  as  Curator  of  Central  Col- 
lege and  as  a  member  of  the  directories  of  other  denominational 
schools.  As  a  member  of  the  Cape  May  Commission  he  assisted 
in  giving  to  the  cause  of  fraternity  an  early  and  happy  direc- 
tion. He  is  best  remembered  as  the  biographer  of  Bishop  Mar- 
vin, to  the  writing  of  whose  life  he  brought  an  affectionate  and 
intimate  personal  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  representatives  of  the  world's  mis- 
sionary forces  met  for  the  first  time  in  an  ecumenical  gather- 
ing in  London  in  June,  1888.  In  April,  1900,  a  similar  meet- 
ing was  held  in  2sew  York  City  and  was  described  as  "the 
largest  religious  gathering  of  modern  times."  The  influence 
of  these  two  great  ecumenical  assemblages  is  distinctly  trace- 
able through  the  missionary  activities  of  all  the  Churches  of 
Protestant  Christendom  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  In  both 
of  these  gatherings  the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  world  made 
a  showing  in  keeping  with  their  traditions. 

While  the  New  York  Ecumenical  Missionary  Conference  was 
in  session,  and  after  the  prophetic  significance  of  its  testimony 


Southern  Missionary  Conference.  1(>!) 


had  been  well  developed,  the  delegates  from  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  met  as  a  denominational  confer- 
ence. The  unanimous  conclusion  then  reached  was  thai  a 
meeting  of  similar  character  should  be  held  at  an  early  day 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Southern  jurisdiction  for  the  purpose 
of  studying  and  advancing  the  missions  of  the  Southern 
Church.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  report  this  conclu- 
sion to  the  Board  of  Missions  at  its  coming  session.  The  plan 
met  with  the  hearty  approval  of  the  Board,  which  appointed 
an  Executive  Committee  to  arrange  for  the  proposed  confer- 
ence. This  conference  assembled  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
on  April  24,  1901,  and  continued  its  sittings  for  six  consecutive 
days.  It  is  well  remembered  as  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
influential  representative  gatherings  ever  held  in  the  Church. 
It  was  the  first  meeting  of  this  character  called  by  a  single 
denomination.  Its  proceedings  were  marked  by  extensive  and 
expert  discussion  of  the  subject  of  missions  and  related  mat- 
ters of  interest  in  the  plans  of  Church  work.  The  opening 
day  was  given  to  a  consideration  of  the  spiritual  basis  of 
missions.  The  chief  speaker  was  Dr.  Alexander  Sutherland, 
of  the  Canadian  Mission  Board.  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn, 
missionary  bishop  in  India,  also  spoke.  On  the  second  day 
foreign  missions  in  general  was  the  subject  considered.  The 
discussion  was  participated  in  by  many  representatives  from 
the  Church's  mission  fields.  The  third  day  was  given  to  the 
discussion  of  the  problem  of  home  and  domestic  missions.  On 
the  fourth  day  the  cause  of  woman's  work  was  well  emphasized 
in  the  addresses  of  many  distinguished  women,  amongst  whom 
was  Miss  Jane  Addams,  of  the  Hull  House  Mission,  Chicago. 
The  fifth  day  of  the  conference  was  distinguished  by  a  scene 
of  liberality  which  has  rarely  been  equaled  in  any  gathering. 
After  a  stirring  missionary  address  by  Bishop  Galloway,  the 
audience  began  spontaneously  to  proffer  gifts  in  money  and 
subscriptions.  Bishop  Wilson,  taking  the  platform,  conducted 
the  impromptu  "heave"  offering  which  resulted  in  a  subscrip- 
tion of  more  than  $50,000,  the  largest  single  collection  for 
missions  known  in  the  history  of  the  Southern  Church.  It  was 
out  of  this  munificent  sum  that  the  money  came  for  founding 
the  Soochow  University.   The  Chinese  citizens  of  that  city  had 


170 


History  o]  Methodism. 


pledged  $25,000,  which,  added  to  the  funds  now  in  hand,  put 
the  work  forward  in  a  way  that  soon  brought  it  to  complete 
success.  The  sixth  day  of  the  conference  was  devoted  to  the 
consideration  of  the  missionary  work  of  the  young  people. 
The  last  day  of  the  sitting  was  spent  in  reviewing  the  work 
and  laying  plans  for  the  conquests  of  a  great  future  which 
every  one  then  realized  to  be  before  the  Church  in  its  mission 
fields.  A  meeting  of  lesser  proportions,  but  modeled  after  the 
New  Orleans  gathering,  was  held  in  Waco,  Tex.,  in  May,  1904. 
The  Church  in  the  North  also  held  a  number  of  similar  regional 
meetings. 

The  twenty-third  delegated  General  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  met 
in  Chicago  May  2,  1900.  Some  notion  of  the  growth  of  Meth- 
odism during  the  nineteenth  century  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  the  Journals  of  all  the  General  Conferences  from 
1796  to  1836,  a  period  of  forty  years,  make  a  book  of  five  hun- 
dred pages,  while  the  proceedings  of  this  single  Conference  fill 
a  volume  of  more  than  eight  hundred  pages.  The  first  Episco- 
pal Address,  read  by  Bishop  McKendree  in  1S12,  consisted  of 
about  nine  hundred  words,  while  the  Episcopal  Address  sub- 
mitted at  this  time  probably  exceeded  fifteen  thousand  words. 
So  has  Methodism  expanded  in  its  record  and  writing. 

The  address  could  not  fail  to  take  note  of  the  fact  that  the 
session  fell  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century  and  that  since 
the  session  of  1800  marvelous  changes  had  passed  over  the 
American  State  and  Church.  It  recalled  the  fact  that  the 
western  boundary  of  the  young  republic  was  then  the  Missis- 
sippi River  and  that  the  Spanish  Floridas  shut  it  entirely  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  population  was  then  five  and  one- 
quarter  million,  one-sixth  of  this  number  being  slaves.  Fewer 
than  four  hundred  thousand  persons,  not  including  Indians, 
lived  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  In  all  the  land  there  was  no 
power  loom,  no  power  press,  nor  any  large  manufactory  of 
any  character.  The  possibilities  of  electricity  were  not 
dreamed  of.  The  cotton  gin  was  little  more  than  an  industrial 
toy.  The  postal  service  was  slow,  and  transportation  was 
primitive  and  difficult.  The  republic  was  still  in  the  stages 
of  its  testing.    To  the  General  Conference  of  1800  the  mem- 


General  Conference  in  the  North. 


171 


bers  went  on  horseback.  The  printed  Journal  of  that  Confer- 
ence filled  sixteen  pages,  contains  no  roll  of  members,  and  is 
defective  in  very  many  important  points.  No  Methodist  schools 
then  surviving,  all  regulations  for  education  were  stricken  from 
the  Discipline.  There  was  no  Church  periodical,  boards  and 
societies  were  unknown,  and  the  vast  and  exhausting  range  of 
the  circuit  work  made  a  highly  organized  system  impossible. 

The  following  excerpt  has  an  inter-Methodist,  not  to  say  an 
inter-Church,  ring  which  gives  it  special  significance  at  this 
point : 

During  the  century  the  various  Methodist  Churches  in  the  United 
States,  all  being  derivatives  from  the  one  Church  of  1800,  have  In- 
creased from  sixty-one  thousand  communicants  to  nearly  six  million. 
That  is,  in  a  population  which  has  increased  fourteen  fold  the  Meth- 
odist Churches  have  increased  more  than  ninety-seven  fold.  Com- 
mensurate with  this,  or  even  beyond  it,  has  been  the  increase  of  the 
ministry,  of  Churches  and  Church  property,  and  of  Church  literature. 
The  Church  school,  which  had  no  existence  in  1800,  has  been  founded 
and  in  its  various  grades  is  now  numbered  by  the  hundreds.  Mean- 
time the  great  benevolences  of  the  Church  have  been  successively  or- 
ganized. Our  mission  fields  are  on  all  continents,  and  God  grants 
gracious  increase  among  many  races.  New  philanthropies,  exponents 
of  the  grace  of  Him  who  went  about  doing  good,  have  risen  in  all 
our  chief  cities.  The  successive  additions  to  the  republic,  from  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  to  the  islands  and  island  groups  recently  acquired 
from  Spain,  have  all  been  occupied  by  our  vast  itinerant  system.  But 
it  is  the  interior  and  spiritual  view  of  the  century  of  Church  life 
which  profoundly  moves  the  thoughtful  soul.  Spiritual  results,  in- 
deed, admit  no  arithmetical  measurement.  We  cannot  even  approxi- 
mately estimate  them.  What  multitudes  for  whom  Christ  died  have 
through  this  ministration  been  saved  from  sin  and  enriched  and  en- 
nobled for  the  service  of  this  present  life! 

At  this  sitting  it  was  formally  announced  that  the  consti- 
tutional provision  for  lay  representation  in  the  General  Con- 
ference had  been  carried.  The  measure,  therefore,  became 
law,  and  the  lay  electoral  conference  came  on  as  a  part  of  the 
machinery  of  the  Annual  Conference.  It  was  at  this  time  also 
that  the  commission  appointed  for  that  purpose  reported  on 
the  organic  law,  or  constitution,  of  the  Church.  This  draft 
was  fully  discussed  in  the  general  body,  adopted,  and  sent  to 
the  Annual  Conferences,  by  which  bodies  it  was  ratified  in  the 
following  year.   This  constitution  must  be  distinguished  from 


172 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  historic  constitution  inhering  in  the  chapter  on  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  as  drafted  by  Joshua  Soule  in  1808  and  regu- 
larly amended  from  time  to  time.  It  contained  that  constitu- 
tion, but  also  much  else  not  before  of  its  character,  as  the 
Articles  of  Religion,  the  General  Rules,  the  organization  of 
Annual  and  subsidiary  Conferences,  etc.  These  became  parts 
of  the  constitution  by  constitutional  action  of  the  General  and 
Annual  Conferences. 

Another  important  departure  was  taken  in  the  action  re- 
moving the  time  limit  from  the  pastorate.  The  disciplinary 
direction  was  made  to  read:  "He  (the  bishop)  shall  appoint 
the  preachers  to  the  pastoral  charges  annually."  This  action, 
preceding  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  described  above, 
did  not  need  to  go  to  the  Annual  Conferences,  being  then  of  a 
statutory  character.  The  institution  of  the  pastoral  limit  in 
original  Methodism  was  through  the  personal  direction  of 
Wesley  as  patriarch  or  by  majority  action  of  the  Conference. 
In  the  Church,  South,  it  is  still  a  conventional  regulation  and 
subject  only  to  majority  action. 

As  a  fitting  emphasis  of  the  close  of  the  old  century  and  the 
opening  of  the  new,  the  bishops  had  appealed  through  a  com- 
mission to  the  Church  to  raise  a  twenty-million-dollar  "Twen- 
tieth-Century Offering"  for  education  and  other  causes.  The 
commission  reported  that  about  ten  million  dollars  of  this 
fund  had  been  subscribed.  Other  matters  of  general  interest 
acted  upon  were:  Resolutions  in  appreciation  of  the  great 
evangelist,  D.  L.  Moody,  whose  death  had  occurred  but  a  brief 
time  before;  memorials  to  Congress  against  Mormonism  and 
polygamy;  a  strengthening  of  the  Church's  law  on  divorce: 
and  a  protest  to  the  Federal  government  against  sectarian  ap- 
propriations for  public  schools.  This  last  action  related  par- 
ticularly to  grants  of  money-  by  the  general  government  to 
the  schools  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  on  Indian  reser- 
vations, such  grants  having  been  declined  by  the  Protestant 
Churches. 

The  fraternal  exchanges  of  this  occasion  were  happy  and 
in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  new  century.  Rev.  E.  E. 
Hoss,  LL.D.,  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  represented  the 
Church,  South,  in  these  fraternal  exchanges.   His  address  was 


Dr.  Eoss — Deaths  in  the  North — Elections.  \7:\ 


an  epoch-marking  utterance.  The  character  of  it  may  be  well 
judged  from  this  selection: 

We  have  a  common  Methodism.  Everything  beyond  1844  belongs 
to  us  both  alike.  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  Embury  and  Strawbridge,  Coke 
and  Asbury,  McKendree  and  Soule,  and  the  whole  brotherhood  of 
itinerants  that  rode  round  the  continent  preaching  the  most  rational, 
the  most  joyous,  the  most  commanding  gospel  that  this  world  has 
ever  heard,  "all  are  ours,  and  we  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's." 
The  achievements  that  they  wrought  cannot  be  selfishly  and  exclusive- 
ly claimed  by  either  section.  If  the  South  sent  Freeborn  Garrettson 
and  Jesse  Lee  and  Peter  Akers  and  John  P.  Durbin  to  the  North, 
the  North  sent  Joshua  Soule  and  William  Winans  and  Jefferson 
Hamilton  and  Stephen  Olin  to  the  South,  the  last  to  be  converted  in 
a  humble  Methodist  home  in  Carolina  and  returned  to  his  native  New 
England  as  a  burning  and  shining  light.  The  tides  of  personal  ac- 
tivity and  of  religious  influence  flowed  backward  and  forward  over  all 
imaginary  lines.  In  those  early  days  we  were  one  in  every  sense. 
Nor  can  any  unprejudiced  man  read  the  proceedings  of  the  great  con- 
vocation that  issued  in  disruption  without  feeling  that  the  participants 
in  the  debates,  instead  of  being  angry  partisans,  anxious  to  precipitate 
a  crisis,  were  thoughtful  and  godly  men,  most  solicitous  to  avoid  a 
catastrophe.  What  was  done  was  done  in  sorrow,  not  in  anger.  The 
parting  caused  a  thousand  heartaches.  The  anger  came  later  and 
flamed  out  at  last  in  bitter  and  passionate  speech.  Many  things  were 
said  by  your  representatives  and  by  ours  that  in  our  cooler  moments 
we  cannot  possibly  justify,  things  that  must  have  grieved  the  heart 
of  the  compassionate  Christ  who  died  for  us.  They  ought  to  be  buried 
in  oblivion. 

The  Church  in  the  North  mourned  during  this  period  the 
death  of  Bishop  John  Philip  Newman,  a  man  of  eloquence  and 
rare  intellectual  attainments  and  well  known  throughout  the 
families  of  Methodism.  Dr.  Alpha  J.  Kynett,  for  thirty-four 
years  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension ;  Dr.  Charles 
H.  Payne,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education;  Dr.  Franz  L. 
Nagler,  Editor  of  Haus  and  Herd;  Dr.  William  Nast,  the 
father  of  German  Methodism  in  the  Northwest;  Dr.  Luke 
Hitchcock,  the  wise  Publishing  Agent;  and  Dr.  William  But- 
ler, the  founder  of  Methodist  missions  in  India,  were  also 
numbered  amongst  those  who  ceased  from  life  and  labor. 

The  Conference,  having  ordered  the  election  of  two  bishops, 
proceeded  to  ballot,  with  the  result  that  David  H.  Moore  and 
John  W.  Hamilton  wrere  elected  to  that  office.    Dr.  William 


174 


History  of  Methodism. 


V.  Kelley  was  elected  Editor  of  the  Methodist  Review,  Dr. 
James  M.  Buckley,  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  and  Dr. 
Joseph  F.  Berry,  Editor  of  the  Epicorth  Herald.  Before  ad- 
journing, the  Conference  appointed  a  commission  which,  with 
the  bishops,  was  empowered  to  name  delegates  to  the  third 
Ecumenical  Conference,  called  to  meet  in  London  September 
4,  1901. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  Canada  was,  during  this  great  new 
time,  meeting  and  mastering  many  difficulties  both  in  its  older 
and  its  newer  fields.  One  of  these  difficulties  was  furnished 
by  the  tribes  of  Indians  in  the  vast  Northwest  of  the  Domin- 
ion and  by  the  influx  of  Chinese  and  Hindus.  About  this  time 
were  reported  a  number  of  industrial  schools  for  these  in- 
digenous and  imported  populations  with  ninety-one  mission- 
aries and  five  hundred  Indian  members  enrolled  in  the  mis- 
sions. For  the  Church  at  large  the  following  figures  were 
given :  Ministers  and  probationers,  2,016 ;  Church  members, 
280,162;  local  preachers,  2,264;  exhorters,  1,125;  class  leaders. 
0,162;  churches,  4,334.  The  number  enrolled  in  the  Sunday 
schools  was  reported  at  270,000,  with  thirty-three  thousand  of- 
ficers and  teachers.  The  membership  of  the  Epworth  League 
was  71,000.  For  all  purposes  a  contribution  of  flO  per  mem- 
ber was  figured  out.  The  property  of  the  Church  aggregated 
#15,500,000.  The  Book  and  Publishing  House  in  Toronto  was 
then  the  largest  concern  of  its  kind  in  the  Dominion  and  con- 
tributed .$40,000  each  quadrennium  to  the  Superannuate  Fund. 
The  educational  institutions  of  the  Church  numbered  nine- 
teen, and  of  these  ten  were  of  college  grade.  The  collections 
on  the  Twentieth-Century  Fund  were  reported  at  $1,200,000,  of 
which  sum  $700,000  was  appropriated  to  the  lifting  of  debts 
upon  churches  and  schools.  The  collections  of  the  Missionary 
Societies  exceeded  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars,  being  on  an 
average  of  $1.25  per  member.  This  showing  gave  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  confidence  in  fixing  the  standard  of  giving  as 
"half  a  million  dollars  for  missions." 

The  reports  of  prosperity  in  the  Motherland  were  not  less 
reassuring.  Despite  the  peculiar  difficulties  and  disabilities 
incident  to  nonconformity  in  England,  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Chnrch  advanced  rapidly.    It  was  now  in  point  of  mini- 


Prosperity  in  England — Third  Ecumenical. 


L75 


bers  the  leading  free  Church  of  England.  The  year  1000  wit- 
nessed the  largest  accession  to  its  membership  during  a  period 
of  nearly  twenty  years.  Church  extension  went  on  apace,  both 
in  replacing  old  structures  by  handsome  and  commodious 
buildings  and  in  providing  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  over- 
growing populations  of  large  towns  and  cities.  As  in  Amer- 
ica the  movement  for  a  twentieth-century  fund  had  brought 
large  results.  It  had  greatly  stimulated  the  Forward  Move- 
ment. The  purpose  to  raise  one  million  guineas  and  the  plan 
for  building  a  great  central  church  house  in  London  for  hous- 
ing all  the  movements  and  enterprises  of  the  Connection  filled 
the  people  called  Methodists  with  an  almost  unprecedented 
enthusiasm.  Early  in  the  movement  the  committees  were  able 
to  report  eight  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling  in 
bank,  with  the  assurance  that  a  round  million  would  be  de- 
posited by  the  end  of  the  year.  The  capital  enterprise  of  the 
building  of  the  sumptuous  central  home  for  Methodism  was 
duly  accomplished,  and  the  same  was  sometime  afterwards 
dedicated  with  appropriate  ceremonies. 

The  third  Ecumenical  Conference  opened  in  Wesley  Chapel, 
City  Road,  London,  on  Wednesday,  September  4,  1901.  Near- 
ly all  of  the  five  hundred  delegates  from  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Sections  were  reported  present,  and  a  great  throng 
of  visitors  filled  the  galleries.  The  venerable  building  in 
which  the  Conference  met  is  itself  a  center  of  interest  to  world- 
wide Methodism.  It  had  been  renewed  and  beautified  for  its 
present  use.  Despite  the  happy  surroundings  of  the  place  and 
time,  however,  the  whole  Methodist  heart  was  saddened  by  rea- 
son of  the  recent  death  of  Dr.  William  Arthur,  the  patriarch  of 
the  English  Church. 

The  first  session  was  opened  by  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison, 
D.D.,  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference.  A 
simple  form  of  service  had  been  printed  and  was  followed.  It 
consisted  of  Scripture  sentences,  the  exhortation,  general  con- 
fession, a  collect,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  responsive  prayers,  a 
psalm,  two  brief  Scripture  lessons,  the  Te  Deum,  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  prayers  for  the  Church,  the  King,  other  rulers,  minis- 
ters, and  people,  and  the  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom. 

The  Conference  sermon  was  preached  by  Bishop  C.  B.  Gal- 


176 


History  of  Methodism. 


loway,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
The  subject  of  this  notable  discourse  was,  "Christian  Experi- 
ence: Its  Supreme  Value  and  Crowning  Evidence."  It  was 
divided  into  three  main  sections:  I.  Regeneration  a  Conscious 
Experience;  II.  The  Irrepressible  in  Christian  Testimony;  III. 
The  Crowning  Evidence.  As  a  sample  of  the  eloquent  argument 
of  this  now  historic  sermon,  we  give  this  quotation : 

God  has  made  us  a  great  people  because  we  have  been  a  witnessing 
people.  Our  itinerants,  from  Wesley  to  the  present  day,  have  preached 
doctrines  verified  by  their  own  experiences.  Not  always  have  they 
spoken  in  the  terminology  of  the  schools  or  with  the  precision  of 
dialecticians,  but  out  of  full  hearts  and  by  the  constraint  of  Christ's 
love.  Theirs  has  been  a  religion  of  knowledge.  Each  could  say:  "I 
know  whom  I  have  believed." 

The  Ecumenical  Conference,  sitting,  as  it  does,  but  once  in 
ten  years,  has  become  a  point  "of  definition  and  calculation." 
It  admits  of  a  recapitulation  of  the  work  and  victories  of  world- 
wide Methodism.  Very  pertinently,  therefore,  the  topic  of  this 
Conference  was  the  relation  of  Methodism  to  world  problems 
of  evangelization,  reformation,  and  missions.  The  second  ses- 
sion was  given  to  the  pleasant  formalities  of  welcome  addresses 
from  the  British  Section  to  the  visitors  from  all  lands.  At 
this  session  the  Rev.  Dr.  Davison  presided  and  made  the  ini- 
tial address,  which  was  responded  to  by  representatives  of 
all  the  other  bodies. 

The  opening  session  of  the  second  day  was  presided  over 
by  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  the  work  of  discussion  was  fairly  and 
earnestly  begun.  The  many  set  speeches  and  discussions  of 
the  session  from  day  to  day  make  a  large  and  healthy  volume, 
which  is  in  some  valuable  sort  a  history  of  the  Methodism  of 
an  entire  decade  and  much  more  a  prophecy  of  the  achieve- 
ments in  decades  to  come. 

One  of  the  pleasing  early  episodes  of  the  Conference  was  a 
communication  from  the  venerable  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
In  both  a  formal  letter  and  a  telegram  he  expressed  himself 
as  being  in  cordial  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  Methodism  and 
invoked  the  blessings  of  God  upon  the  Conference  and  its  de- 
liberations.   The  letter,  unfortunately,  had  an  irregular  de- 


Archbishop  and  Bishop — Sad  Tidings.  177 


livery,  but  the  telegram  was  cordial  and  direct.  It  read  as 
follows : 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  desires  to  express  his  hearty  good 
will  to  the  great  Methodist  gathering  now  meeting  in  London,  and 
prays  earnestly  that  God's  blessings  may  rest  upon  its  deliberations. 

In  response  to  this  telegram  the  Conference  sent  the  follow- 
ing reply : 

The  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  representing  more  than 
seven  millions  of  communicants,  earnestly  prays  that  you  may  be 
spared  for  many  years  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  your  great  office,  and 
that  the  blessing  of  God  may  abundantly  rest  upon  the  Reformed 
Church  of  England,  over  which  you  preside. 

The  Bishop  of  London  sent  a  communication  in  much  the 
same  vein,  to  which  the  Conference  replied  at  length,  pleasant- 
ly and  courteously  pointing  out  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a 
union  of  Methodism  and  Anglicanism,  which  His  Lordship  had 
as  pleasantly  and  as  courteously  suggested  in  his  letter  of 
greeting.  The  Conference  was  not  less  pleased,  and  felt  equally 
honored,  in  receiving  an  informal  and  most  hearty  note  of 
greeting  from  the  venerable  Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  pastor  of  the 
London  Temple.  In  that  note  the  renowned  pastor  said:  "I 
need  not  tell  you  that  I  always  thrive  in  the  warm  atmosphere 
of  Methodism  and  that  my  heart  is  with  you  in  all  this  sacred 
festival.  My  love  be  with  you  all  in  Christ  Jesus."  To  these 
several  courteous  communications  is  to  be  added  one  from  the 
Curacy  of  Epworth  Church  and  Rectory,  the  early  home  of  the 
Wesleys,  this  communication  offering  the  freedom  of  that  sa- 
cred shrine  to  the  members  of  the  Conference  and  especially  to 
the  foreign  delegates  during  their  stay  in  the  realm. 

The  happy  order  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Conference  was 
interrupted  on  September  7  by  news  of  the  attempted  assas- 
sination of  President  McKinley.  Twenty  years  before,  when 
the  first  Ecumenical  Conference  was  in  session  in  the  same 
place,  its  proceedings  were  shadowed  by  the  assassination  of 
President  Garfield,  and  the  Conference  passed  through  the 
painful  experience  of  holding  a  memorial  service  to  pay  re- 
spect to  the  memory  of  the  dead  and  to  manifest  the  sympathy 
12 


178 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  the  two  great  English-speaking  nations  in  which  Methodism 
has  its  chief  representation.  The  news  of  the  attempt  to  as- 
sassinate President  McKinley  was  doubly  distressing  because 
he  was  not  only  the  President  of  the  great  republic,  but  was 
one  of  the  most  honored  Methodists  of  the  world.  The  Con- 
ference took  appropriate  notice  of  the  sorrowful  event,  and 
from  day  to  day  bulletins  were  read  showing  the  progress  or 
decline  of  the  distinguished  patient.  On  September  14  the 
sad  news  that  the  President  had  died  was  officially  read  to  the 
Conference.  One  of  the  last  acts  of  the  body  was  to  hold  a 
memorial  service  in  Wesley  Chapel,  in  which  representatives 
of  Ecumenical  Methodism  took  feeling  and  eloquent  part.  On 
this  occasion  the  Rev.  T.  Bowman  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
who,  by  reason  of  his  frequent  visits  to  this  country,  had  come 
to  be  regarded  as  all  but  an  American,  made  these  impressive 
statements : 

When,  eight  months  ago,  the  best  woman  who  ever  sat  on  a  throne, 
Queen  Victoria,  lay  dead  in  her  home  over  the  Solent,  it  seemed  to 
us  that  we  could  almost  hear  the  bells  tolling  across  the  Atlantic  and 
that  we  could  almost  see  the  Stars  and  Stripes  drooping  at  half-mast 
over  the  White  House  at  Washington.  Little  did  we  think  then  that 
eight  months  afterwards  the  bells  would  be  tolling  on  this  side  and 
the  flags  flying  at  half-mast  here  for  the  good  and  generous  man  who 
had  ordered  that  mark  of  respect  for  the  Queen's  memory  and  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  British  nation;  but  so  it  is. 

Just  before  entering  upon  the  solemn  service  in  memory  of 
the  dead  President  the  Conference  had  sent  formal  greetings 
to  His  Majesty,  King  Edward  VII.,  in  which  the  following  oc- 
curred : 

Meeting,  as  we  have  done,  in  the  capital  of  your  vast  empire,  we 
have  felt  it  a  duty  and  privilege  to  address  Your  Majesty  a  respectful 
greeting.  We  assure  you  that  in  the  grief  which  overtook  yourself, 
your  family,  and  the  empire  through  the  decease  of  the  late  beloved 
and  revered  Queen  Victoria  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  share  sym- 
pathetically and  sincerely;  and  in  the  congratulations  which  greeted 
your  accession  to  the  throne  they  join  not  less  heartily. 

To  this  message  the  King  sent  a  cordial  response,  acknowl- 
edging the  courtesy  of  the  action  as  expressive  of  the  senti 
ment  of  the  countries  represented  in  the  Conference. 


'A  Terrible  and  Bloody  War. 


17!) 


Though  but  a  decade  and  a  half  have  passed  since  the  record 
of  these  events,  so  completely  do  they  belong  to  another  time 
and  action,  and  so  sadly  and  bitterly  have  they  been  separated 
from  the  present  by  a  terrible  and  bloody  world  war,  that  they 
seem,  indeed,  to  be  of  the  history  of  a  remote  past.  By  every 
token  it  is  a  new  age  which  the  Church  and  the  secular  world 
are  now  called  to  face.  Nor  is  it  impertinent  here  to  add  that 
one  of  the  purposes  of  this  history  is  to  contribute  to  the  new 
world  feeling  which  is  coming  to  the  consciousness  of  Meth- 
odism and  in  a  marked  degree  to  the  Methodism  of  the  South. 
An  enlarged  share  in  the  thought  activities  of  the  race  and 
an  invited  responsibility  for  the  wider  Church  program  of  evan- 
gelization are  the  manifest  destiny  of  the  Methodism  of  these 
parallels.  And  it  is  through  a  proper  and  sober  study  of  our 
past  that  these  new  opportunities  of  the  present  are  to  be  real- 
ized. It  is  not  that  any  loyal  people  are  to  be  humiliated  by 
a  study  of  the  records  of  their  antecedents,  but  that  they  are 
to  find  in  these  the  true  meaning  of  their  destiny  which  waits 
for  a  fuller  working  out.  He  is  the  best  historian  who  has 
tarried  long  enough  in  the  company  of  the  prophets  to  catch 
the  contagion  of  their  spirit. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


General  Conference  in  Texas — Total  of  Twentieth-Century  Offering- 
Great  Church  Buildings — A  Trained  and  Equipped  Ministry — On 
Connectionalism — Order  of  Deaconess — Issues  before  the  Confer- 
ence^— Cordial  Fraternity — Conference  Greetings — Child  Labor — 
World's  Fair — Board  of  Insurance — Episcopal  Rulings — Review  Made 
a  Quarterly — "Worldly  Amusements" — Reports  of  Fraternal  Delegates 
— Episcopal  and  Other  Elections — Contrast  of  Old  and  New — Per- 
sonnel of  Conference— History  of  "War  Claim"— 1902-1905. 

THE  growth  of  Methodism  in  the  Southwest  had  been  very 
marked  during  the  two  or  three  quadrenniums  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  General  Conference  of  the  Southern  Church 
held  in  1002.  This  growth  had  been  particularly  notewor- 
thy in  Texas,  where  all  the  interests  of  the  Connection  had 
been  put  forward  and  where  approximately  one-seventh  of  the 
Church's  membership  was  then  to  be  found.  These  facts,  used 
as  an  argument,  secured  for  Dallas,  the  chief  commercial  city 
of  the  State,  the  session  of  the  General  Conference,  the  sitting 
beginning  on  May  7.  As  had  been  done  by  the  Conference  in 
the  North,  the  body  improved  the  occasion  as  an  opportunity 
for  reviewing  the  history  of  the  Church  and  the  nation  during 
the  century  so  recently  closed.  The  quadrennium  whose  labors 
and  events  were  coming  up  for  special  review  had  been  marked 
by  great  world  movements  in  which  the  Church  could  but  feel 
a  direct  and  lively  interest  and  which  were  destined  to  affect 
its  policies,  particularly  in  the  mission  field  and  in  its  social 
endeavors.  Disturbances  in  Eastern  Asia,  including  the  Boxer- 
troubles,  were  indications  of  portentous  changes  in  the  affairs 
of  those  oldest  peoples  of  the  earth;  the  war  in  South  Africa 
had  put  the  Dark  Continent  in  a  new  relation  to  civilization 
and  the  prospects  of  the  future;  while  the  successful  conclu- 
sion of  the  Spanish-American  War  had  added  an  imperial  is- 
land domain  to  American  territory,  started  new  currents  of 
political  thought  and  sympathy  for  the  people  of  America  in 
general,  and  created  new  obligations  for  the  Churches.  Tn  the 
distribution  of  this  insular  territory  the  new  republic  of  Cuba 
fell  wholly  to  the  Church,  South,  as  a  Methodist  mission  field. 
Q80) 


Thanh  Offering — ChurclirBuilding — Ministry.  181 


With  the  other  Methodist  bodies,  the  Church  in  the  South 
had  pushed  the  cause  of  the  Twentieth-Century  Thank  Offer- 
ing. This  offering  was  designed  especially  to  aid  the  cause  of 
education.  The  subscription  totaled  the  sum  of  $2,031,948.17. 
This  was  applied  mostly  to  local  enterprises,  in  increasing  the 
endowment  of  secondary  schools,  and  in  enlarging  the  equip- 
ment of  colleges  already  established. 

About  this  time  began  in  the  Connection  a  revival  in  church- 
building  which  resulted  in  the  erection  and  furnishing  in  many 
cities  of  the  land  and  even  in  smaller  towns,  as  sometimes  in 
country  districts,  of  a  large  number  of  church  edifices  of  ex- 
ceptional sumptuousness  and  architectural  beauty.  The  Renais- 
sance, or  Greek  order,  became  the  prevailing  type,  an  adapta- 
tion which  has  many  points  to  commend  it.  In  Atlanta,  St. 
Louis,  Memphis,  Houston,  Louisville,  New  Orleans,  Kansas 
City,  Norfolk,  Fort  Worth,  and  other  cities  the  first  congrega- 
tions led  the  movement  in  creating  places  of  worship  that  have 
become  monuments  to  the  Church's  spirit  and  enterprise.  This 
movement  extended  also  to  the  building  of  new  and  commodious 
houses  for  the  pastors  of  Churches,  so  that  the  property  hold- 
ings of  the  Connection  and  its  efficiency  in  material  equipment 
were  vastly  increased.  In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned 
the  plan  for  building  a  representative  church  in  Washington 
City,  which  took  shape  about  this  time.  The  funds  for  this 
undertaking  have  been  pushed  as  a  connectional  claim  until 
the  needed  amount  has  been  approximately  realized.  A  lot 
has  been  purchased,  and  the  work  of  erection  is  expected  to  be- 
gin soon.  This  movement  from  the  South  has,  it  is  reported, 
stimulated  other  denominations  to  like  undertakings  in  the 
capital  of  the  nation. 

It  was  not  unnatural  that  the  advance  in  material  prepara- 
tion should  go  hand  in  hand  with  another  and  more  significant 
advance,  that  of  a  larger  and  better  preparation  of  the  ministry 
for  its  part  in  the  work.  The  demand  for  a  properly-equipped 
ministry  both  caused,  and  was  caused  by,  the  material  enlarge- 
ment already  noted.  The  laity  of  the  Church,  through  pressure 
of  the  intellectual  forces  of  the  age,  came  to  feel  the  need 
of  an  authoritatively  interpreted  gospel,  nor  less  to  see  the 
need  of  a  better-housed  Church  and  the  proper  support  of 


182 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  men  who  were  to  furnish  interpretations.  The  early  Meth- 
odist itinerant  was  generally  a  celibate  and  always  a  homeless 
wanderer;  but  in  this  modern  time  the  preacher  must  contend 
with  static  conditions  and  meet  the  needs  of  a  settled  popula- 
tion and  one  constantly  increasing  in  wealth  and  social  oppor- 
tunities. He  himself,  therefore,  must  be  settled,  at  least  for 
the  time  being;  must  be  intellectually  furnished;  must  have  a 
library  and  other  means  of  constant  and  varied  mental  refresh- 
ment; must  be  as  free  as  possible  from  fiscal  cares;  and  for  the 
delivery  of  his  message  must  have  a  place  which  will  attract 
and  interest  a  congregation  drawn  from  all  classes.  The  great- 
est gifts  and  preparations  are  crippled  by  lack  of  these  acces- 
sories; but  the  most  elaborate  preparations  count  for  little  if 
the  man  who  is  to  use  them  is  lacking  in  fitness  for  his  task. 
The  positive  side  of  these  doctrines  is  expressed  in  the  en- 
larged Church  equipments  and  in  the  increased  facilities  for 
theological  training  in  our  day. 

An  issue  somewhat  related  to  the  matters  just  discussed  be- 
came more  or  less  acute  about  this  time.  It  grew  out  of  what 
was  described  as  a  "weakened  sense  of  connectionalism."  The 
Methodist  communion  is  not  an  association  of  many  inde- 
pendent Churches,  but  is  one  Church,  or  Ecclesia,  expressing 
its  life  and  order  through  many  and  separate  congregations. 
Likewise  in  the  beginning  of  Methodism  there  was  but  one 
Conference,  and  the  different  bodies  so  called,  when  there  came 
to  be  more  than  one,  were  regarded  as  separate  sittings  of  the 
one  Conference.  So  now  the  Annual  Conferences  are  not  dif- 
ferent organizations,  but  parts  of  the  one  organic  whole,  which 
is  called  the  Connection.  However,  the  temptation  to  both 
ministers  and  laymen  has  been  to  think  to  the  contrary  of  this 
and  to  set  Conference  against  Conference  in  matters  where  per- 
sonal interests  are  involved.  Very  early  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  because  of  these  local  interests  in  opposition,  the  bish- 
ops began  to  find  it  difficult  to  transfer  the  preachers  from 
one  Conference  to  another.  The  growth,  too,  of  a  large  connec- 
tional  officiary  and  the  administration  of  connectional  trusts, 
which  seemed  to  create  a  class  rlistinct  from  the  regular  or- 
ders, resulted  in  not  a  little  quiet  disaffection,  all  of  which 
naturally  weakened  the  general  bond.   At  one  time  there  was 


Connectionalism" — Order  of  Deaconess. 


183 


fear  that  this  "disconnectional"  feeling  might  lead  to  serious 
results;  but  a  distinct  reaction  soon  set  in,  and  certain  great 
controversies  which  have  since  ensued  have  very  thoroughly 
tested  the  connectional  loyalty  of  both  the  ministry  and  the 
laity.  However,  the  manifestation  of  "disconnectionalism,"  re- 
ferred to  above,  in  some  degree  still  persists.  It  may  be  well, 
therefore,  to  enter  here  an  utterance  of  the  bishops  bearing 
upon  it.   The  address  of  1902  said : 

We  deem  it  advisable  that  your  attention  be  directed  to  a  tendency, 
which  seems  to  be  growing  in  some  of  the  Conferences,  to  lose  sight  of 
the  connectional  character  of  our  Church.  "While  it  has  been  the 
general  usage  among  us  to  appoint  the  preachers  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Conference  of  which  they  are  members,  still  it  is  the  genius  of  our 
system  and  the  law  of  our  Church  that  the  bishops,  as  General  Super- 
intendents of  our  Church,  make  such  disposition  of  the  itinerant 
preachers  as  in  their  judgment  will  best  serve  the  whole  Church.  The 
itinerancy  of  a  preacher  does  not  mean  his  traveling  only  in  one  Con- 
ference, and  that  of  his  own  selection,  but  in  any  Conference  of  the 
Connection,  when  in  the  judgment  of  the  appointing  power  it  is  needful 
that  he  change  his  mere  Conference  relation.  Your  General  Superin- 
tendents never  insist  upon  the  enforcement  of  this  connectional  idea 
except  when  the  exigencies  of  the  work  demand  it.  It  is  a  gratifying 
fact  that  our  preachers  very  rarely,  if  ever,  seek  a  transfer  in  order 
that  they  may  be  advanced  in  place  and  position.  Almost  invariably 
the  transfer  to  the  most  desirable  and  important  charges  in  the  Church 
originates  with  the  bishops  and  the  charges  to  be  served,  and  not  with 
the  appointee;  and  we  deplore  the  disposition  of  some  to  use  offensive 
epithets  when  referring  to  the  transferred  preacher  as  well  as  the  at- 
tributing to  him  of  unworthy  motives. 

The  Church  in  the  South,  had  steadfastly  and,  as  many  of  its 
leaders  felt,  wisely  declined  to  recognize  the  order  of  deaconess, 
holding  that  the  office  in  the  ancient  Church  was  an  incident 
and  not  an  established  order  or  institution.  But  it  now  began 
to  be  plain  that  the  demand  for  its  recognition  could  not  much 
longer  be  denied.  Though  its  advocates  had  not  been  able  to 
succeed  directly  with  their  plans,  they  had  so  far  strengthened 
their  cause  as  to  give  assurance  of  early  success.  That  success 
came  at  this  meeting  of  the  General  Conference.  The  deaconess 
movement  was  only  one  of  a  number  of  like  issues  pending. 
The  mind  of  the  Connection  was  being  sown  over  with  interro- 


184 


History  of  Methodism. 


gation  points,  and  ideas  once  rated  as  novelties  were  now  pa- 
rading in  the  attire  of  the  commonplace  and  practical. 

Such  were  the  conditions  amid  which  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1902  met  in  the  city  of  Dallas.  It  was  understood  by 
the  delegates  that  grave  questions  were  to  be  met;  a  very  Lit- 
ter controversy  over  the  war  claim  collected  by  the  Publish- 
ing Agents  and  the  Book  Committee  had  to  be  answered  ;  many 
difficult  public  positions  in  the  Church  were  to  be  filled,  while 
new  policies  for  the  new  times  had  to  be  worked  out  and  an- 
nounced. Never  before,  perhaps,  had  the  party  spirit  been  so 
manifest  nor  the  counsels  of  the  Church  so  divided;  certainly 
at  no  time  since  has  the  situation  been  so  distressing  as  then. 
But  for  all  this,  the  session  was  memorable  for  the  number 
and  fervor  of  fraternal  messages  and  exchanges.  In  addition 
to  the  usual  visitation  from  the  Church  in  the  North,  the 
Church  of  Canada,  and  the  British  Wesleyan  Connection,  mes- 
sengers or  messages  were  received  from  the  Methodist  Prot- 
estant Church,  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Assembly,  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention, the  African  Methodist  Church,  the  Colored  Methodist 
Church,  the  Federation  of  Churches  in  America,  and  from  the 
American  Bible  Society. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  had  happily  selected  as  its  representatives  President 
DeWitt  C.  Huntington,  D.D.,  and  the  Hon.  John  L.  Bates. 
Dr.  Huntington,  a  scholar  and  educator,  dealt  largely  in  his 
fraternal  address  with  those  Biblical  questions  which  were 
acute  at  the  time.  This  paragraph  from  his  address  is  well 
worthy  of  being  put  within  easy  reach  of  the  young  ministers 
and  Bible  students  of  to-day : 

Students  generally  among  us  have  been  led  to  distinguish  more  par- 
ticularly than  ever  before  between  the  essential  and  the  nonessential  in 
Christian  teaching.  They  understand  that  the  fact  of  inspiration  is  of 
greater  importance  than  its  mode.  Whether  Moses  wrote  all  the  Pen- 
tateuch, whether  there  were  two  Isaiahs  or  only  one,  whether  the  in- 
spired writers  incorporated  historical  and  genealogical  material  which 
they  found  at  hand,  may  be  interesting  subjects  of  investigation  to  Bib- 
lical critics;  but,  however  decided,  they  in  no  way  determine  whether 
God  has  revealed  himself  to  man  or  man  can  be  saved  through  Jesus 
Christ.    This  criticism  has,  however,  produced  a  modified  view  of  in- 


Fraternal  Messengers  from  the  Church,  North.  185 


spiration.  This  was  needed.  Strictly  speaking,  God  inspired  men,  not 
books.  In  the  words  of  your  lamented  Haygood:  "Why  should  any 
lover  of  the  Bible  contend  one  moment  for  a  verbal  and  mechanical  in- 
spiration? Had  that  been  necessary  in  order  to  giving  man  saving 
truth,  God  would,  we  cannot  doubt,  have  used  holy  men  as  mere  pen 
points.  In  that  case,  however,  holy  men  would  not  have  been  necessary. 
One  man  would  have  done  as  well  as  another,  if  he  wrote  a  good  hand." 
Christian  apologetics  sorely  needed  a  deeper  and  higher  idea  of  what 
constitutes  inspiration.  A  view  was  demanded  which  holds  fast  to 
the  speaking  Spirit  of  God,  makes  room  for  the  normal  activity  of 
human  minds,  and  is  in  no  way  embarrassed  by  the  human  elements 
which  are  involved  in  the  divine  communications.  Christian  belief  is 
made  stronger  by  reason  of  the  change. 

The  address  of  Mr.  Bates  was  popular,  humorous  at  times, 
and  overflowing  with  fraternity,  good  sense,  and  good  feeling. 
When  he  said,  "We  live  in  the  present,  and  many  are  the  rea- 
sons which  fill  our  hearts  with  hopes  for  the  future,"  he  seemed 
to  play  upon  the  hearts  of  his  auditors  as  upon  an  instrument 
answering  to  a  multiple  harmony. 

The  Rev.  Ralph  Brecken,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  Luke  Wiseman, 
B.A.,  the  former  representing  the  Church  of  Canada  and  the 
latter  the  British  Connection,  of  whose  Legal  Conference  he 
later  became  President,  spoke  with  the  earnest  and  illuminating 
directness  characteristic  of  the  leaders  of  their  Churches.  Dr. 
Brecken's  address  was  an  epitomized  history  of  the  work  of 
the  Canadian  Connection  in  its  newly  reorganized  shape. 
Speaking  of  the  lay  ministry  of  the  British  Connection,  Dr. 
Wiseman  said : 

Our  ordained  ministry  is  nobly  supplemented  by  our  great  order  of 
lay  (or,  as  we  call  them,  local)  preachers.  Some  of  the  most  prominent 
members  of  our  Church,  men  whose  ability  and  worth  were  by  our  late 
gracious  sovereign  recognized  with  royal  favor — members  of  Parlia- 
ment, justices  of  the  peace,  city  and  town  councilors,  members  of  the 
learned  professions — are  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  this  noble  order. 
Without  the  aid  of  the  local  preacher,  Methodism  in  the  rural  districts 
would  soon  become  extinct.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  circuit 
with  two  traveling  preachers  to  have  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five  places 
on  the  plan.  It  is  obvious  that  the  majority  of  these  must  be  supplied 
by  local  preachers;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  every  Sunday  five  out  of 
every  seven  pulpits  of  Methodism  are  occupied  by  these  devoted,  self- 
sacrificing  men. 


186 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  episcopacy  had  suffered  no  loss  from  death  during  the 
quadrennium ;  but  several  members  of  the  college  were  in  feeble 
health,  and  some  were  even  unable  to  attend  the  session  of  the 
General  Conference.  Bishops  Granbery,  Hargrove,  and  Fitz- 
gerald were,  at  their  own  request,  placed  upon  the  retired  list. 
The  affectionate  greetings  of  the  Conference  were  transmitted 
to  Bishop  Keener,  who,  at  his  own  request,  had  been  retired 
four  years  before.  Messages  of  remembrance  were  also  sent 
to  the  Rev.  Jerome  C.  Berryman,  of  Missouri,  and  the  Rev. 
Andrew  Hunter,  of  Arkansas,  the  "only  surviving  members  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1844."  Rev.  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.D., 
the  distinguished  Presbyterian  divine  of  New  Orleans,  then 
near  the  end  of  his  venerable  life,  was  remembered  by  the  Con- 
ference in  a  message  tendering  its  sympathies  and  prayers. 

The  agitation  against  child  labor  had  engaged  a  wide  public- 
interest,  and  the  Conference  took  notice  of  the  same  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  series  of  resolutions  dealing  therewith.  Later  the 
departmental  literature  of  the  Church  gave  much  attention 
to  the  study  of  this  abuse  and  was,  with  other  similar  agencies, 
instrumental  in  mitigating  it  and  in  securing  proper  laws 
against  it  in  the  States  where  it  most  prevailed. 

The  St.  Louis  World's  Fair,  held  in  commemoration  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  was  to  come  on  in  1904,  and  the  Confer- 
ence recommended  that  the  connectional  boards  of  the  Church 
make,  in  connection  therewith,  "a  suitable  exhibit  of  the  mis- 
sionary, educational,  and  other  interests"  in  their  hands.  A 
large  and  prosperous  part  of  the  Church's  field  is  now  included 
in  the  territories  embraced  in  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 

An  important  piece  of  legislation,  establishing  a  Board  of 
Insurance,  was  enacted.  A  part  of  the  text  of  the  enacting 
resolution  is  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  a  Board  of  Insurance  shall  be  appointed  by  this  Gen- 
eral Conference,  upon  nomination  of  the  Committee  on  Church  Exten- 
sion, which  shall  consist  of  eleven  members,  and  a  majority  of  whom 
shall  reside  in  or  near  the  city  of  Louisville,  Ky.  It  shall  be  the  duty 
of  said  Board  to  make  arrangements  for  the  more  general  and  adequate 
insurance  of  our  Church  property  against  destruction  by  fire,  lightning, 
or  storm.  Said  Board  shall  have  authority  either  to  organize  a  com- 
pany for  said  purposes,  to  be  operated  under  the  authority  and  patron- 
age of  the  General  Conference,  or  to  make  arrangements  with  some  ex- 


Insurance — Legislation — Fraternal  Reports — Elections.  187 


isting  company  whereby  the  trustees  of  our  Church  property  may  be 
enabled  to  secure  adequate  protection  for  the  same  upon  terms  more 
favorable  than  can  now  be  obtained  at  the  established  rates  of  the  lead- 
ing commercial  companies.  The  Board  shall  have  no  authority  to  in- 
volve the  Church  or  any  department  thereof  in  any  pecuniary  obliga- 
tion or  liability  by  its  acts.  The  members  of  said  Board  shall  serve  for 
a  term  of  four  years  and  until  their  successors  shall  have  been  elected; 
but  the  Board  shall  have  authority  at  any  meeting  to  fill  vacancies  oc- 
curring in  its  membership. 

The  College  of  Bishops  was  directed  to  furnish  the  General 
Conference  at  each  session  a  copy  of  all  official  rulings  upon 
matters  of  law  arising  during  each  quadrennium.  It  was  also 
provided  that  no  episcopal  ruling  should  be  authoritative,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  pending,  until  such  decision  shall  have  been 
passed  upon  by  the  whole  college  in  session. 

The  Methodist  Review  was,  by  order  of  this  Conference, 
changed  from  a  bimonthly  to  a  quarterly  publication.  The 
Book  Editor  was  ordered  to  print  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  a 
uniform  text  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  for  use  in  all  the  services 
and  offices  of  the  Church.  The  address  on  "Worldly  Amuse- 
ments" was  ordered  to  be  retained  as  an  official  interpreta- 
tion of  the  general  rules  bearing  on  that  subject. 

Bishop  Hendrix  reported  as  fraternal  delegate  to  the  Wes- 
leyan  Conference,  Dr.  E.  E.  Hoss  as  delegate  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  Dr.  A. 
Coke  Smith  as  delegate  to  the  Church  of  Canada.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Episcopacy  having  recommended  the  election  of  two 
bishops,  the  Conference  proceeded  to  ballot,  with  the  result 
that  Dr.  Hoss  and  Dr.  Smith  were  chosen  for  that  office. 
Bishop  Smith  did  not  live  through  the  quadrennium.  An  ap- 
propriate sketch  of  his  life  and  work  will  appear  in  its  place 
in  a  future  paragraph  of  this  narrative. 

The  connectional  elections  resulted  as  follows :  Book  Agents, 
R.  J.  Bigham  and  D.  M.  Smith;  Book  Editor,  J.  J.  Tigert; 
Editor  Christian  Advocate,  George  B.  Winton;  Sunday  School 
Secretary  and  Editor,  James  Atkins;  Epworth  League  Secre- 
tary and  Editor,  H.  M.  Du  Bose;  Missionary  Secretary,  W.  R. 
Lambuth;  Secretary  Board  of  Church  Extension,  Peter  H. 
Whisner;  Secretary  Board  of  Education,  John  D.  Hammond. 

This  first  General  Conference  of  the  new  century  affords  an 


188 


//  is  tor y  of  Methodism. 


opportunity  for  a  study  and  contrast  of  the  new  and  old  lead- 
ership of  the  Connection.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  one 
familiar  with  the  Church's  history  associates  certain  names 
with  the  earlier  and  more  eventful  sessions  of  the  General  Con- 
ferences. Besides  those  of  whom  more  or  less  extended  sketches 
have  already  been  given  in  this  connection,  one  recalls  for  the 
first  twenty  years,  including  and  following  the  epochal  General 
Conference  of  1866,  such  names  as  those  of  Eldridge  R.  Yeitch, 
Samuel  Roszell,  Leonidas  Rosser,  Shadrach  Hargiss,  Charles 
F.  Deems,  Nelson  Head,  L.  D.  Burkhead,  Sidi  H.  Brown,  Sam- 
uel Anthony,  John  W.  Glenn,  H.  H.  Parks,  Josephus  Ander- 
son, Joseph  Cottrell,  A.  H.  Mitchell,  Joseph  B.  Walker,  Robert 
J.  Harp,  W.  E.  M.  Linfield,  John  G.  Jones,  H.  H.  Montgomery, 
George  W.  D.  Harris,  William  C.  Johnson,  John  W.  Hanner, 
Thomas  Maddin,  Wellborn  Mooney,  James  S.  Kennedy,  John 
W.  McTeer,  Robert  Hiner,  George  M.  Winton,  John  H.  Harrell, 
W.  H.  Hughes,  J.  W.  P.  McKenzie,  J.  M.  Binkley.  Asbury  Da- 
vidson, Josiah  W.  Whipple,  William  H.  Seat,  and  W.  R.  Gober. 
These  are  names  worthy,  each,  of  a  detailed  story.  Their  record 
is  in  their  share  of  the  labors  which  planned  and  shaped  the 
earlier  legislation  of  the  new  era  upon  which  its  fabric  rests  so 
well. 

The  middle  times  brought  to  the  roll  of  the  General  Confer- 
ences the  names  of  others  whose  tasks  were  of  enduring  signifi- 
cance in  linking  up  the  issues  of  the  century.  Of  these  were: 
W.  V.  Tudor,  Alex  G.  Brown,  W.  P.  Mouzon,  X.  A.  Cravens,  W. 
H.  Watkius.  David  Sullins.  Ira  P.  Walker.  Horace  Jewell.  Or- 
cenith  Fisher,  Rumsey  Smithson,  T.  S.  Wade,  R.  X.  Price.  J. 
O.  A.  Clark,  J.  M.  Poland,  George  H.  Hayes,  J.  H.  Pritchett, 
J.  H.  McLean,  H.  A.  Bourland,  M.  H.  Xeely,  John  Adams,  H.  D. 
Moore,  J.  W.  Rush,  Frank  Richardson,  B.  M.  Messick,  R.  H. 
Mahon,  J.  L.  Wheat,  William  Murrah,  H.  V.  Philpott,  John  B. 
McGehee,  Charles  B.  Dowman.  E.  A.  Yates,  T.  H.  B.  Anderson, 
and  J.  M.  Mason. 

A  number  of  these  names  appeared  on  the  roll  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1800,  but  in  the  membership  of  1902  the  recur- 
ring number  was  small.  In  the  sessions  which  filled  up  the 
interval  of  these  years  appeared  many  names  which  have  be- 
come known  to  the  Connection.    Amongst  these  are  John  A. 


Clerical  and  Lay  Leaders — War  Claim. 


189 


Kern,  J.  W.  Tarboux,  D.  W.  Carter,  A.  P.  Parker,  James  Camp- 
bell, D.  Atkins,  J.  H.  Weaver,  W.  C.  McCoy,  Frank  L.  Reid, 
W.  H.  Anderson,  W.  C.  Lovett,  J.  O.  Branch,  W.  F.  Glenn,  S. 
A.  Steel,  John  O.  Willson,  John  O.  Keener,  C.  H.  Briggs,  John 
W.  Heidt,  S.  H.  Werlein,  S.  A.  Weber,  and  C.  C.  Woods. 

The  General  Conference  of  1902  has  already  been  referred  to 
as  a  forensic  session.  A  number  of  important,  not  to  say  ex- 
citing, questions  were  on  the  calendar,  and  there  was  no  lack 
of  earnest  argument.  Several  times  the  discussions  became 
heated  and  helped  to  make  the  sitting  a  memorable  one.  The 
debates  and  committee  proceedings  were  actively  participated 
in  by  many  who  had  already  become  experienced  in  the  work  of 
legislation  and  by  others  new  to  the  lists,  some  of  whom  have 
since  become  leaders  in  discerning  the  things  that  Israel  ought 
to  do.  Amongst  those  not  already  mentioned  were:  A.  F.  Wat- 
kins,  F.  N.  Parker,  Stonewall  Anderson,  F.  S.  H.  Johnston, 
James  Cannon,  Jr.,  J.  Powell  Garland,  B.  F.  Lipscomb,  J.  C. 
Rowe,  R.  A.  Childs,  R.  D.  Smart,  H.  P.  Hamill,  C.  F.  Reid,  V. 

A.  Godbey,  A.  J.  Weeks,  James  A.  Burrow,  R.  P.  Howell,  T.  F. 
Brewer,  S.  H.  Wainright,  W.  E.  Vaughan,  Samuel  S.  Keener, 
Fielding  Marvin,  John  P.  McFerrin,  W.  P.  Love  joy,  Horace 
Bishop,  I.  W.  Clark,  W.  L.  Nelms,  John  R.  Nelson,  John  M. 
Barcus,  and  J.  J .  N.  Kenney. 

The  lay  delegations  were  also  abreast  of  the  interest  and  ac- 
tivities of  the  session.  Amongst  those  well  known  in  the  Con- 
nection were:  W.  F.  Vandiver,  Arthur  B.  Pugh,  T.  T.  Fish- 
burne,  T.  S.  Garrison,  E.  C.  Reeves,  Creed  F.  Bates,  J.  H.  Hine- 
mon,  Wilbur  F.  Barclay,  John  R.  Pepper,  R.  W.  Millsaps,  E. 

B.  Craighead,  J.  R.  Bingham,  B.  M.  Burgher,  L.  Blaylock,  R. 
S.  Hyer,  W.  R.  Webb,  J.  A.  Odell,  and  F.  M.  Daniels. 

By  far  the  most  absorbing  and  distracting  question  which 
came  before  the  General  Conference  of  1902  was  that  which  in- 
volved its  action  in  final  disposition  of  the  war  claim.  This 
matter  is  of  such  historical  interest  and  importance  that  a  full 
record  of  it  may  well  be  entered  here.  It  is  a  fact  familiar  to 
the  readers  of  this  history  that  the  Church  had  a  legitimate 
claim  against  the  Federal  government  for  the  use  and  abuse  of 
its  Publishing  House  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  during  the  War  be- 
tween the  States.   This  claim  was  estimated  as  something  like 


190 


History  of  Methodism. 


half  a  million  dollars.  Nearly  thirty  years  had  been  spent  in 
vain  and  expensive  efforts  to  secure  an  indemnity,  when  about 
1894  the  Book  Committee  and  the  Book  Agents  employed  Mr.  E. 
B.  Stahlman,  an  attorney  at  Nashville,  to  prosecute  the  claim. 
For  his  services  he  was  to  receive  thirty-five  per  cent  of  the 
sum  collected.  This  was  not  an  unusual  fee,  the  government 
itself,  it  is  asserted,  in  certain  Indian  claims  having  allowed 
an  even  larger  fee  to  agents.  But  it  was  agreed  between  the 
Church's  attorney,  Mr.  Stahlman,  and  the  representatives  of 
the  Publishing  House  that  all  legal  and  business  communica- 
tions should  be  made  through  the  attorney  and  that  all  in- 
quiries should  be  referred  to  him  for  answer.  This  was  also 
understood  to  accord  with  the  usual  custom  governing  such 
attorneyships. 

The  work  of  Mr.  Stahlman  was  pressed  with  such  vigor  that 
by  March,  1898,  a  bill  allowing  the  Church  $288,000,  or  about 
fifty  per  cent  of  its  claim,  had  passed  without  incident  the 
Lower  House  of  Congress  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate  for  its 
action.  Sometime  previous  to  this  Senator  Bate,  of  Tennessee, 
wired  to  the  Agents  certain  questions  concerning  the  claim. 
To  these  inquiries  Dr.  Barbee,  Senior  Book  Agent,  sent  the 
following  telegram  from  Bryan,  Tex.,  he  being  at  that  point 
on  official  business: 

Your  telegram  mailed  me  here.  Confer  with  Stahlman,  who  under- 
stands the  case  thoroughly  and  has  full  authority. 

On  March  5  Senator  Pasco,  of  Florida,  who  had  taken  much 
interest  in  the  bill,  wrote  the  Book  Agents  the  following  letter : 

Dear  Sirs:  Some  malicious  persons  are  circulating  a  slanderous  story 
about  the  Capitol,  with  the  evident  purpose  to  obstruct  the  passage  of 
our  bill.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  you  have  made  a  contract  with  Mr. 
Stahlman  to  pay  him  forty  per  cent  of  the  amount  recovered.  It  was 
not  necessary  for  me  to  get  any  contradiction,  because  I  knew  very  well 
that  the  Agents  of  the  Publishing  House  knew  better  how  to  conduct 
their  trust  than  to  make  such  an  improvident  bargain.  I  knew  also  that 
there  was  no  power  to  make  such  a  contract,  so  I  did  not  hesitate  to 
denounce  it  as  a  malicious  slander;  and  I  am  sure  also  that  the  Sena- 
tors who  came  to  me  for  information  upon  the  subject  are  thoroughly 
satisfied  with  my  statement.  But,  as  a  matter  of  caution,  it  will  be  very 
well  for  me  to  have  a  positive  denial  from  you,  which  I  can  use  if  it 
appears  necessary,  either  before  the  bill  comes  up  for  action  or  on  the 


War  Claim  Letters  and  Telegrams. 


101 


floor  of  the  Senate.  So  I  suggest  that  you  send  me  a  telegram  on  Mon- 
day as  to  the  facts  of  the  case  and  authorizing  me,  as  I  am  sure  you 
can,  to  deny  this  statement.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  there  is  a  very  fair 
prospect  of  getting  the  bill  up  for  consideration  by  Tuesday,  and  every- 
thing indicates  that  our  efforts  will  be  successful.  I  have  had  a  good 
many  conferences  with  Senators  with  reference  to  it,  and  the  many  as- 
surances of  support  that  have  been  given  to  me  and  others  who  have 
taken  an  interest  in  the  matter  convince  me  that  it  has  gained  strength 
since  it  came  to  the  Senate.  Senator  Bate  has  been  unceasing  in  his 
efforts  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  successful  conclusion,  and  we  shall  con- 
tinue to  do  all  in  our  power  to  get  a  vote  as  early  as  is  possible. 

This  letter  was  received  by  the  Book  Agents  on  March  7,  and 
they  immediately  sent  the  following  telegram  in  reply  thereto : 

The  statement  is  untrue,  and  you  are  hereby  authorized  to  deny  it. 

Thirty  minutes  later,  fearing,  as  the  testimony  shows,  that 
this  telegram  might  prove  misleading  or  be  insufficient,  and 
mindful  of  their  contract,  as  they  claimed,  with  the  Church's 
attorney,  the  Book  Agents  sent  another  wire  as  follows : 

Have  asked  Mr.  Stahlman  to  call  at  once  and  see  you.  He  is  a  gen- 
tleman upon  whose  statement  you  may  implicitly  rely.  He  is  our 
friend  and  neighbor  and  an  official  member  of  our  Church,  whose  in- 
terest in  our  behalf  reaches  beyond  and  above  pecuniary  considerations. 

On  the  same  day  (March  7)  Senator  Bate,  of  Tennessee,  sent 
the  Book  Agents  the  following  telegram : 

Telegraph  to-day  answer  to  Senator  Pasco's  letter  to  you  Saturday 
as  to  Stahlman  having  fee  of  forty  per  cent,  or  any  other  fee,  in  case 
of  payment  of  your  claim.  I  should  like  to  hear  from  you  also.  In  my 
judgment,  if  true,  it  will  endanger  the  bill. 

In  answer  to  this  telegram  the  Book  Agents  sent  a  wire  re- 
peating their  first  telegram  to  Senator  Pasco.  On  the  day  fol- 
lowing this  exchange  of  messages  the  Senate  bill  passed  on  its 
final  reading.  In  the  concluding  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
bill  the  telegrams  of  the  Book  Agents  were  read,  but  dissoci- 
ated from  the  letter  that  called  them  out,  and,  as  it  appears, 
to  prove  that  no  percentage  was  to  be  paid  the  attorney.  (The 
letter  of  Senator  Pasco  had  asked  if  forty  per  cent  was  to  be 
paid.) 

It  was  held  that  if  this  letter  and  the  one  from  Senator 
Bate  had  been  read  before  the  Senate,  the  famous  war  claim 


192 


History  of  Methodism. 


controversy  would  never  have  had  a  record.  The  Agents  al- 
ways contended  that  they  did  not  object  to  its  being  known — 
they  supposed,  indeed,  that  it  was  known — that  the  Church's 
attorney  was  to  receive  compensation.  They  objected  only  to 
giving,  and  felt  under  obligations  not  to  give,  the  details  of 
their  contract  except  through  their  attorney;  and  this  informa- 
tion, as  an  explanation  satisfactory  to  their  questioners,  they 
sought  to  convey  by  wiring  their  attorney  to  visit  them.  The 
attorney  obeyed  and  reported  that  the  interview  was  satis- 
factory.* They  had  not  sought  a  correspondence  with  Senators, 
but  had  simply  and  briefly  answered  their  inquiries  in  a  way 
which,  they  believed,  would  lead  to  the  information  which  the 
Senators  sought,  at  the  same  time  conforming  to  the  obliga- 
tions of  their  contract  with  the  attorney.  The  plan  miscarried, 
but  this  was  not  charged  to  any  immoral  or  dishonorable 
motive  on  the  part  of  the  Book  Agents.  In  the  light  of  history 
fulfilled,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  affair  might  have  been  con- 
ducted differently;  but  the  demand  of  the  moment,  imposing 
necessity  for  telegraTjhic  quickness,  left  little  opportunity  for 
reflection.  If  mistakes  of  judgment  were  made  by  the  Book- 
Agents,  the  United  States  Senators  involved  in  the  correspond- 
ence were  equally  open  to  the  charge  of  falling  into  mistake. 
With  better  knowledge  of  all  the  situation,  the  Book  Agents 
could  have  gone  more  directly  at  the  issue.  Doubtless  it  is  also 
equally  true  that  had  the  Senators  understood  the  viewpoint  of 
the  Agents  the  controversy  would  never  have  come  about.  The 
after  record  shows  that  the  Church  and  the  general  public  took 
this  view  of  the  case. 

The  Book  Agents  a  little  later  put  their  case  together  in  the 
following  letter  to  Senator  Pasco : 

Bear  Sir:  On  the  7th  of  March  we  received  a  letter  from  you,  under 
the  date  of  March  5,  in  which  you  stated  among  other  things:  "Some 
malicious  persons  are  circulating  a  slanderous  story  about  the  Capitol, 
with  the  evident  purpose  to  obstruct  the  passage  of  our  bill.  It  is  to 
the  effect  that  you  have  made  a  contract  with  Mr.  Stahlman  to  pay  him 
forty  per  cent  of  any  amount  recovered." 

To  this  we  responded:  "Letter  of  5th  received.  The  statement  is 
untrue,  and  you  are  hereby  authorized  to  deny  it." 


♦"Life  of  Barbee." 


Book  Agents  and  Senators — Payment. 


193 


We  also,  on  the  7th  of  March,  received  a  telegram  from  Senator  Bate 
on  the  same  subject  and  repeated  to  him  the  telegram  we  had  sent  to 
you.  We  should  not  deem  it  necessary  to  say  anything  further  on  the 
subject  but  for  the  fact  that  during  the  discussion  of  our  bill  in  the 
Senate  (as  shown  in  the  Congressional  Record,  which  we  have  just 
read)  statements  were  made  by  one  or  two  Senators  which,  by  infer- 
ence at  least,  were  calculated  to  create  the  impression  that  nothing  was 
to  be  paid  by  the  Publishing  House  to  any  attorney  or  representative 
of  the  Book  Agents.  The  claim,  as  you  are  aware,  was  pending  in  Con- 
gress for  nearly  thirty  years.  During  several  years  of  that  period  we 
had  a  Washington  attorney  (Mr.  Moyers)  employed  on  a  percentage 
basis.  This  arrangement  was  made  with  the  full  knowledge  and  con- 
sent of  our  Book  Committee  (the  Book  Agents,  as  very  properly  stated 
to  you,  having  no  authority  to  make  such  contracts  without  the  consent 
of  the  committee).  For  reasons  satisfactory  to  our  friends  in  the  Sen- 
ate and  House,  we  declined  to  renew  the  contract  when  it  expired  and 
instead  accepted  the  proffered  assistance  of  others,  some  of  whom  were 
devoted  friends  and  members  of  our  Church,  and  one  of  whom,  even  as 
early  as  1891,  and  before  the  agreement  with  the  Washington  attorney 
expired,  had  rendered  valuable  assistance  in  our  endeavors  to  pass  the 
bill.  This  gentleman  was  as  earnest  in  his  endeavor  to  help  us  then  as 
he  was  subsequently;  the  only  difference  being  that  formerly  much  of 
his  time  was  occuDied  in  other  pursuits,  while  during  the  past  two  and 
a  half  years  he  has  had  time  which  he  could  call  his  own,  and  a  good 
portion  of  which  during  his  extended  sojourn  in  Washington  he  has 
seen  fit  to  devote  largely  to  our  interests.  It  is  hardly  to  be  presumed 
that  this  gentleman  and  others  who  assisted  him  should  be  willing  to 
serve  the  Publishing  House  and  incur  the  large  expense  of  staying  in 
Washington  without  some  compensation;  and  if,  therefore,  in  the  final 
adjustment  it  was  deemed  proper  to  pay  these  gentlemen  a  reasonable 
compensation  for  their  services  and  expenses,  and  this  compensation 
was  paid  with  the  consent  of  the  proper  authorities  of  the  Church,  you, 
as  well  as  other  Senators,  we  are  sure,  will  agree  that  it  was  not  an  im- 
proper thing  to  do. 

The  indemnity  allowed  by  the  Senate  bill  was  promptly  paid 
into  the  hands  of  the  Book  Agents,  who  thereupon  made  settle- 
ment with  their  attorney  on  the  contract  basis  of  thirty-five 
per  cent  of  the  whole  sum.  Sometime  later — that  is  to  say,  in 
June  of  the  same  year — charges,  as  before  stated,  were  made 
to  the  effect  that  the  Senate  had  been  misled  in  allowing  the 
claim,  and  the  telegrams  above  quoted  were  made  the  basis  of 
these  charges.  A  formal  investigation  was  ordered  and  under- 
taken by  the  Senate  as  a  body.  The  Book  Agents  joined  in 
the  request  for  this  investigation,  saying: 
13 


194 


History  of  Methodism. 


We  hope  the  resolution  will  pass  and  that  a  thorough  investigation 
may  follow.  We  do  not  care  to  discuss  the  matter  now.  All  we  ask  is 
that  you  and  other  Senators  who  supported  the  claim  shall  suspend 
judgment  and  refrain  from  comment  or  criticism  until  the  committee 
shall  have  done  its  work.  We  are  persuaded  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
show  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  committee  and  the  Senate  that  all 
statements  made  by  us  designed  to  promote  the  passage  of  the  bill  were 
justified  by  the  facts  and  circumstances  of  the  case. 

The  investigation  prosecuted  by  the  Senate  committee  was 
largely  informal  and  was  confined  to  a  single  passage  in  the 
history  of  the  case — namely,  the  purpose  and  effect  of  the 
before-mentioned  telegrams.  The  Book  Agents  appeared  before 
the  committee  and  entered  their  contention  in  answer  to  the 
charges  of  evasion  and  concealment.  This  answer  was  that 
categorical  replies  had  been  given  to  categorical  questions  and 
that  in  withholding  specific  information  as  to  the  fees  of  their 
attorney  the  Book  Agents  had  acted  within  what  they  believed 
to  be  their  rights  and  in  respect  to  their  contract.  The  claim 
being  just,  it  followed,  as  they  contended,  that  the  represent- 
atives of  the  Church  had  a  right  to  employ  an  attorney  and 
pay  him  such  fee  as  they  judged  equitable,  their  responsibility 
being  only  to  their  constituency,  the  general  body.  Further- 
more, they  disclaimed  any  purpose  to  deceive  or  mislead  those 
responsible  for  the  allowance  of  the  claim. 

After  being  a  number  of  days  in  session,  the  Senate  com- 
mittee reported,  declaring  that  "no  censure  should  rest  upon 
the  Church  for  any  action  of  its  Agents  or  representatives." 
and  concluding  with  this  finding — viz. : 

The  committee  has  not  thought  it  proper  to  suggest  to  the  Senate 
any  action  concerning  this  matter,  it  appearing  to  the  committee  that 
the  governing  authority  of  the  Church  must  be  allowed  to  take  such 
measures  as  it  may  think  proper  after  it  has  been  fully  acquainted 
with  the  facts  concerning  the  passage  of  the  bill  and  the  final  dispo- 
sition of  the  money  appropriated  by  it. 

After  this  action  the  College  of  Bishops,  speaking  for  the 
whole  Church,  transmitted  to  the  Vice  President  of  the  United 
States,  as  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Senate,  the  following: 

While  reaffirming  the  justness  of  our  claim,  payment  of  which  has 
been  sought  for  twenty-five  years,  we  insist  that  the  Church  cannot  afford 
to  accept  it  as  a  gratuity  or  on  conditions  that  reflect  upon  its  honor. 


Senatorial  Investigation — General  Conference  Action.  11)5 


Inasmuch,  therefore,  as  some  Senators  have  affirmed  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  that  they  were  induced  to  support  the  claim  by  misleading 
statements  on  the  part  of  the  representatives  of  the  Church — state- 
ments, however,  which  do  not  affect  the  merits  of  our  claim — we  here- 
by give  this  assurance:  That  if  the  Senate,  by  affirmative  action,  de- 
clares that  the  passage  of  the  bill  was  due  to  such  misleading  state- 
ments, we  will  take  the  proper  steps  to  have  the  entire  amount  returned 
to  the  government. 

This  communication  having  been  referred  to  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Claims,  the  said  committee  reported  that  mis- 
statements and  concealments  complained  of  affected  only  the 
beneficiaries  of  the  fund  and  not  the  United  States  and  that, 
therefore,  the  Senate  should  take  no  further  action  in  the  mat- 
ter. When  this  report  was  made  to  the  open  Senate,  a  resolu- 
tion accepting  the  finding  of  the  committee  was  adopted  with- 
out a  dissenting  vote.  Later,  replying  to  a  communication 
from  one  or  more  of  the  bishops,  a  letter  was  written  and  signed 
by  seventy-nine  Senators,  including  a  majority  of  the  Senators 
who  had  voted  for  the  bill,  in  which  the  following  statement 
was  made: 

The  resolution  adopted  by  the  Senate  was  a  distinct  reply  to  that 
offer  [the  offer  made  by  the  bishops],  declining  to  recognize  the  pro- 
priety of  the  repayment  by  the  Church  of  this  money  to  the  govern- 
ment. In  view  of  this  record,  we  are  unable  to  see  upon  what  ground 
there  can  be  based  the  contention  that  the  Church  should  make  a  sec- 
ond offer  and  invoke  a  second  refusal  from  the  government  or  any  de- 
partment thereof.  The  report  of  the  committee  and  the  resolution, 
both  adopted  by  the  Senate  in  explicit  terms,  exonerates  the  Church  from 
all  blame  or  ground  of  criticism  for  anything  which  occurred  in  con- 
nection with  the  passage  of  the  bill  and  is  a  clear  expression  of  opinion 
that  there  is  no  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  Church  to  repay  the 
money  to  the  government  or  to  make  further  offer  to  do  so. 

The  General  Conference  at  great  length,  both  of  time  and 
argument,  discussed  the  issues  involved  in  the  settlement  of 
this  claim.  As  a  result  of  the  investigation  of  that  body,  a  de- 
cision was  entered  in  its  officially  closed  record,  the  Journal. 
The  "summary  of  that  entry  is  as  follows :  First,  that  the  Church 
had  a  historic,  just,  and  legal  claim  against  the  government 
for  the  use  and  abuse  of  its  Publishing  House.  Second,  that 
the  amount  finally  received  and  accepted  as  payment  in  full  of 
this  claim  was  not  equal  to  the  loss  sustained.    Third,  that,  in 


19G 


History  oj  Methodism. 


answer  to  the  complaint  that  this  payment  had  been  secured 
through  misleading  statements  of  the  Church's  representatives, 
the  bishops  of  the  Church  had  offered  to  secure  the  return  to 
the  government  of  the  whole  sum  paid  (which  action  was  in- 
dorsed by  the  General  Conference ) ,  but  that  the  offer  had  been 
declined.  Fourth,  that  the  Church  repudiated  "all  the  acts  of 
concealment,  misstatement,  or  unfairness  on  the  part  of  any 
or  all  persons  representing  the  Church  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  claim  before  Congress.''  Fifth,  this  action  was  declared 
to  be  "a  final  settlement  of  the  whole  matter." 

This  settlement  was  accepted  with  satisfaction  by  the  Church 
at  large,  and  the  affair  became  closed  for  all  time. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Romance  of  the  Middle  Southwest — Andrew  Hunter — The  Nashville 
Community — Robert  A.  Young — Revival  of  the  Methodist  Review — 
John  W.  Hinton — Men  of  Northern  Birth — W.  M.  Prottsman  and 
Church  Extension — H.  C.  Settle — Experiences  in  Missouri — E.  K. 
Miller — Samuel  Lander  and  Lander  College — Death  of  Bishops 
Keener  and  Hargrove — J.  D.  Barbee — "The  Apostle  to  the  Cubans" — 
John  D.  Vincil — Other  Well-Known  Men — Westward — Northern  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1904 — Episcopal  Address — The  New  Century — 
Superannuation  of  Bishops — Dr.  Kilgo,  Fraternal  Messenger — A  Con- 
stitutional Question — New  Bishops — Connectional  Elections — Cana- 
dian Methodism — General  Church  Union  in  Canada — English  Meth- 
odism— English  Leaders — In  Ireland — In  Australia — 1902-1905  (Con- 
cluded). 

THE  history  of  the  Middle  Southwest,  which  particularly 
describes  the  lower  reaches  of  Missouri,  the  State  of 
Arkansas,  and  the  Indian  lands,  carried  an  aroma  of  romance 
from  the  earliest  times.  At  first  this  romance  attached  to  the 
adventures  of  trappers,  trail  makers,  and  explorers  of  the  vast 
hunting  grounds  which  lay  in  these  regions.  But  immediately 
the  trails  were  struck,  and  the  rudimentary  settlements  were 
visited,  by  the  Methodist  itinerants.  There  are  many  names  in 
a  recent  history  of  the  Church  which,  when  mentioned,  call  to 
mind  the  wealth  of  these  early  stories  of  adventure.  Mention 
has  already  been  made  in  these  pages  of  the  name  of  Andrew 
Hunter,  the  most  distinguished  of  the  pioneer  preachers  of 
Arkansas.  This  remarkable  man  died  on  June  3,  1902,  in  the 
eighty-ninth  year  of  his  age.  Born  in  County  Antrim,  Ire- 
land, December  20,  1813,  he  came  in  early  youth  with  his 
parents  to  America.  The  first  settlement  of  the  family  was  in 
Pennsylvania.  In  younger  manhood  the  father  was  not  reli- 
gious, but  the  mother  had  been  turned  from  Catholicism  to 
Protestantism  while  yet  in  the  old  country.  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  a  faithful  Methodist  preacher,  the  whole  family,  includ- 
ing the  father,  who  died  in  Pennsylvania  while  the  son  was  yet 
a  youth,  were  brought  into  the  Methodist  Church.  In  1835 
young  Hunter  went  West  and  took  up  the  work  of  school- 
teaching  in  Missouri.  Having  a  sound  religious  experience,  his 

(197) 


198 


History  of  Methodism. 


mind  naturally  turned  toward  the  ministry.    Before  he  had 
fully  settled  his  mind  as  to  the  clearness  of  his  call,  an  oppor- 
tunity arose  to  teach  in  a  mission  school  for  the  Indians.  This 
took  him  into  the  Indian  Territory,  to  a  point  near  the  present 
city  of  Muskogee,  where,  an  occasion  arising,  he  began  to  preach 
before  having  received  a  license.    Being  licensed  at  a  later 
day,  on  the  organization  of  the  Arkansas  Conference  in  1836, 
he  was  received  into  the  traveling  connection.    Then  began  a 
career  of  apostolic  labors  exceptional  even  in  a  land  and  time 
of  exceptional  records  in  the  Methodist  itinerancy.  Sixty-six 
years  his  ministry  continued,  and  during  this  time  he  was 
never  located  and  never  transferred.    Many  times  the  Confer- 
ence lines  were  changed,  but  he  remained  with  the  historic 
segment.    As  circuit  preacher,  presiding  elder,  pastor  in  city 
charges,  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  agent  for  the 
Book  and  Tract  Society,  he  maintained  an  unbroken  and  un- 
faltering record.    Some  of  his  earliest  circuits  and  districts 
were  hundreds  of  miles  in  extent,  and  the  course  of  the  itiner- 
ant was  through  trackless  wildernesses  and  over  unbridged 
rivers.    He  became  to  Arkansas  what  Asbury  and  McKendree 
had  been  to  the  continent.   His  influence  was  mighty  through- 
out the  young  commonwealth.   Nor  was  it  less  in  the  general 
councils  of  the  Church.   Elected  a  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference in  1843,  he  became  a  member  of  the  famous  sitting  of 
1814  and  was  returned  to  eleven  of  the  subsequent  sittings  in 
the  Southern  Church.   For  nearly  a  decade  before  his  death  he 
was  reported  to  be  one  of  the  two  surviving  members  of 
the  body  which  divided  the  Church.    Five  times  he  presided 
over  the  Annual  Conference  in  the  absence  of  the  bishop  and 
was  often  de  facto  in  important  exigencies.   In  the  distressing 
times  which  followed  the  War  between  the  States  he  consented 
to  sit  in  the  State  Senate  of  Arkansas  and  was  by  the  legisla- 
ture elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  but  did  not 
serve  in  that  post  because  of  the  Federal  reconstruction  act 
which  shortly  went  into  force.    A  few  years  later  he  was  ten- 
dered indorsement  for  the  governorship  of  the  State  and  might 
easily  have  been  elected,  but  declined  the  honor,  saying  he 
could  not  abandon  the  work  of  a  Methodist  preacher  for  even 
the  governorship  of  Arkansas.    His  honors  were  more  than 


Andrew  Hunter — R.  A.  Young. 


199 


those  of  the  civic  bays;  they  were  in  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
and  these  he  had  won  through  the  faithfulness  of  his  ministry, 
which  at  one  time  or  another  touched  every  part  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  State.  "His  mellow,  vibrant  voice  made  his  speech 
impressive,"  wrote  a  contemporary  who  had  felt  the  power  of 
his  message.  This  message,  and  not  himself,  was  his  one  con- 
cern.  Thus  it  was  that  his  message  made  him  great. 

The  local  community  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  was  long  noted  for 
the  number  and  distinction  of  its  Methodist  leaders.  Not  only 
of  the  men  drawn  thither  by  reason  of  its  being  the  Church's 
connectional  center,  but  of  those  to  the  manner  born,  as  it  were, 
came  in  an  earlier  day  a  preponderance  of  leaders,  clerical  and 
lay,  who  were  trusted  to  say  what  Israel  should  do.  A  name 
worthy  of  association  with  this  distinguished  memory  is  that 
of  Robert  A.  Young,  D.D.,  who  died  February  7,  1902.  Dr. 
Young  was  for  many  years  prominently  connected  with  the 
missionary  and  educational  enterprises  of  the  Church,  serving 
a  term  as  General  Missionary  Secretary  and  twenty-eight  years 
as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University. 
He  was  also  the  first  financial  agent  of  that  institution  and 
gave  valuable  aid  in  raising  funds  for  its  equipment  in  the 
times  before  cupidity  and  disloyalty  had  plotted  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Church's  title  thereto.  Dr.  Young  was  converted  in 
1842  during  his  student  days  in  Washington  College,  from 
which  institution  he  graduated  in  1844.  Having  begun  the 
study  of  medicine,  he  was  planning  to  devote  his  life  to  its 
practice  when  the  call  to  the  ministry  became  so  strong  that 
he  turned  about  and,  offering  himself  to  the  Holston  Confer- 
ence in  1845,  was  received  on  trial  and  at  once  began  the  work 
of  an  itinerant.  In  the  following  year  he  transferred  to  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  where  from  that  date  to  1852  he  served 
in  various  posts,  including  the  pulpits  in  Lebanon  and  Hunts- 
ville,  the  latter  and  the  regions  thereabout  being  then  in  the 
Tennessee  Conference.  At  the  end  of  1852  he  was  transferred 
to  the  First  Church,  St.  Louis.  In  1860  he  returned  to  Ten- 
nessee, where  he  continued  in  an  unbroken  relation  until  the 
end  of  his  life.  Dr.  Young  was  first,  elected  to  the  General 
Conference  in  1865  and  sat  in  the  six  succeeding  sessions  of 
that  body.  For  twenty-four  consecutive  years  he  was  Secretary 


200 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  the  Tennessee  Conference.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
Regent  of  Belmont  College.  A  contemporary  estimate  of  him 
as  a  preacher  was  that  he  "was  clear,  forceful,  and  command 
ing."  In  the  pastorate  he  was  wise,  sympathetic,  and  diligent. 
He  was  the  author  of  several  interesting  volumes,  as,  "Celebri- 
ties I  Have  Known,"  "Twenty  Thousand  Miles  Over  Land  and 
Sea,"  and  "Sketchy  Pages  of  Foreign  Travel." 

Dr.  Young  was  largely  instrumental  in  reviving  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Methodist  Review  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Bledsoe, 
in  1877,  and  the  suspension  of  the  old  Southern  Review.  As- 
sociated with  him  and  others  was  Dr.  J.  W.  Hinton,  of  the 
South  Georgia  Conference,  who  became  the  first  editor  of  the 
revived  publication.  Dr.  Hinton  was  in  several  respects  a  re- 
markable man.  Of  astute  intellect,  indomitable  will,  and  provi- 
dentially placed  at  the  vantage  of  a  real  opportunity  for 
leadership,  it  was  inevitable  that  his  life  of  spiritual  power 
and  consecration  should  count  in  an  unusual  way.  He  was  a 
native  of  Georgia,  born  in  Wilkes  County,  the  habitat  of  many 
really  great  men,  January  3,  1826.  Cokesbury  College,  South 
Carolina,  has  the  honor  of  having  conducted  the  processes  of 
his  early  education,  which,  however,  were  kept  up  through  his 
whole  life,  for  he  was  always  a  student.  For  several  years 
he  was  in  the  local  ranks,  entering  the  itinerancy  in  1847.  No 
man  in  the  Southern  Connection  was  more  familiar  with  its 
history  and  the  personnel  of  its  leadership,  the  reason  being 
that  he  had  grown  up  in  sympathetic  knowledge  of  the  unfold- 
ing of  events  from  1844  onward.  During  a  ministry  of  fifty- 
two  years  he  filled  nearly  all  the  important  stations  in  his 
Conference,  superannuating  in  1899.  He  was  a  mem-ber-elect 
of  the  General  Conference  of  1866  and  from  then  on  of  every 
General  Conference  until  the  time  of  his  superannuation.  In 
a  tribute  to  his  memory  by  the  Conference  appeared  this  pas- 
sage: "For  fifty  years  a  glorious  preacher  of  the  gospel,  keep- 
ing, amid  innumerable  false  doctrines,  his  loyalty,  love,  and 
zeal;  white-browed,  white-handed,  white-shod,  despite  the  flood- 
ing iniquities  of  the  earth." 

The  ministry  of  the  Southern  Church  at  the  time  of  the 
Separation,  in  1844,  contained  a  number  of  men  of  Northern 
birth,  and  after  that  time  many  more  came  to  it  from  that  see- 


Men  of  Northern  Birth — The  Border. 


201 


tion.  Bishop  Soule,  Bishop  Linus  Parker,  Dr.  E.  E.  Wiley, 
Dr.  S.  D.  Baldwin,  Dr.  E.  H.  Myers,  and  Dr.  Homer  S.  Thrall 
were  amongst  those  men  of  Northern  birth  who  gave  peculiar 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  Church  in  the  land  of  their  adop- 
tion. In  this  list  the  name  of  W.  M.  Prottsman,  identified 
with  Missouri  Methodism,  is  in  happy  remembrance.  A  native 
of  Ohio,  born  February  19,  1817,  he  went  first  to  Virginia  as 
a  teacher,  there  joined  the  Conference,  and  later  served  in 
Kentucky.  In  1850  he  went  to  Missouri,  where,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  or  three  years  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  he  spent 
the  remainder  of  his  long  ministry.  The  records  show  him  to 
have  been  active  in  the  work  of  several  General  Conferences. 
He  wrote  the  Constitution  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension. 
As  a  Christian,  a  man,  and  a  preacher,  his  rank  was  high. 

A  man  described  by  his  Conference  contemporaries  as  "one 
of  the  most  commanding  figures  ever  in  the  Louisville  Confer- 
ence" was  Dr.  Henry  Clay  Settle,  who  was  born  May  26,  1836, 
and  whose  death  came  on  January  11,  1903.  His  father,  a 
journalist,  was  a  familiar  of  the  late  George  D.  Prentice,  of 
Louisville,  and  a  close  political  associate  of  Henry  Clay,  for 
whom  he  named  his  son.  Young  Settle,  well  equipped  in  educa- 
tion, went  to  California  to  pursue  the  calling  of  a  journalist 
and  to  take  up  the  practice  of  law,  but  was  there  converted 
and  entered  the  ministry,  becoming  a  member  of  the  Pacific 
Conference.  In  1860  he  returned  to  Kentucky  and  finished  a 
brilliant 'and  consecrated  career  in  the  Conference  in  his  native 
State.  He  was  possessed  of  a  handsome  personality,  but  was 
always  frail  in  health,  which  latter  fact  kept  him  back  from 
an  even  larger  usefulness  and  prominence. 

The  sacrifices  and  self-devotion  of  many  of  the  ministers  of 
the  Southern  Church  on  the  border,  and  especially  in  Missouri, 
from  1860  to  1865,  make  a  story  of  romance  and  heroism  out  of 
the  ordinary.  The  life  history  of  Rev.  E.  K.  Miller,  D.D.,  is 
typical  of  this  record.  A  native  of  the  State,  having  been 
born  in  Marion  County  October  3,  1829,  he  was  converted  in 
young  manhood  and  while  engaged  in  teaching  answered  the 
call  to  the  ministry.  In  the  autumn  of  1851  he  joined  the 
Missouri  Conference  and  at  once  rose  to  distinction  and  in- 
fluence. Being  elected  in  1861  to  the  General  Conference  sched- 


202 


History  of  Methodism. 


uled  to  meet  in  Xew  Orleans  in  1862,  be  started  southward, 
in  company  with  Dr.  Enoch  M.  Marvin,  to  join  his  compeers. 
This  course  was  forbidden  by  the  local  Federal  authorities, 
but  he  chose  to  obey  God  rather  than  men.  On  his  return, 
after  learning  that  the  Conference  had  been  indefinitely  post- 
poned, he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  first  at  Jefferson  City 
and  then  at  Alton,  111.  After  a  year  or  two  he  was  condi- 
tionally released,  it  appearing  that  he  was  suffering  from  a 
malady  that  must  end  in  death  if  his  confinement  continued. 
President  Lincoln  later  made  his  release  unconditional.  But 
still,  with  others,  notably  S.  S.  Headlee,  who  was  murdered 
hy  a  factional  mob  sometime  afterwards  while  attending  one  of 
his  appointments,  he  suffered  from  unreasonable  men  and  po- 
litical persecutors.  In  1864  he  went  to  Xevada  and  the  next 
year  took  work  in  the  Pacific  Conference,  where  for  eighteen 
years  he  served  with  success  and  ability.  In  1878  a  transfer 
was  given  him  back  to  his  home  Conference  in  Missouri,  where 
he  resumed  his  place  in  the  affections  and  preferences  of  his 
brethren.  He  served  in  several  General  Conferences  as  a  dele- 
gate from  both  the  Pacific  and  the  Missouri  Conferences. 
He  was  a  man  of  massive  frame,  strong  character,  and  pos- 
sessed of  a  spirit  redolent  of  the  highest  graces  of  religion. 
His  death  occurred  March  14,  1004. 

The  obituary  pages  of  these  years  carry  a  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Lander,  D.D.,  who  died  July  14, 
1004.  Dr.  Lander  was  the  child  of  Irish  parents,  but  both  of 
them  were  of  long  Protestant  antecedents.  The  son  was  born 
in  Virginia  and  educated  in  Randolph-Macon  College,  graduat- 
ing with  first  honors.  At  the  beginning  of  his  active  life  his 
attention  was  given  to  the  study  of  law;  but  this  he  soon  gave 
up  for  the  work  of  teaching.  In  [North  and  South  Carolina  he 
filled  important  educational  posts.  Having  entered  into  a  deep 
religious  experience,  he  gave  himself  to  the  ministry  and  in 
1804  joined  the  South  Carolina  Conference.  Besides  doing  cir- 
cuit work,  he  served  for  several  years  as  President  of  Daven- 
port College  and  other  schools.  About  1873  he  was  providen- 
tially led  to  establish  the  Williamston  Female  College,  of  which 
he  remained  President  until  the  day  of  his  death.  This  school 
was  for  a  long  time  one  of  the  educational  landmarks  of  South 


Lander  College — Death  of  Bishop  Keener.  20.°> 

Carolina  Methodism.  It  survives  to-day  in  its  lineal  successor, 
Lander  College,  of  Greenwood.  The  Christian  master  lives 
in  the  lives  of  thousands  of  the  mothers  of  South  Carolina  and 
other  Southern  commonwealths  whom  he  trained  to  imitate 
the  walk  and  spirit  of  the  women  of  Galilee. 

The  quadrennium  which  closed  with  the  General  Conference 
of  1906  added  more  than  the  usual  measure  of  loss  through 
death  to  the  long  roll  of  the  Church's  fallen  servants.  On  Jan- 
uary 19,  1906,  Bishop  John  Christian  Keener,  senior  bishop  of 
the  Connection,  died  at  his  home,  in  New  Orleans.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  the  most  majestic  personality  in  Meth- 
odism. Of  commanding  stature  and  presence,  his  intellectual 
powers  so  emphasized  these  as  to  express  themselves  even  in 
his  moods  of  silence.  Few  faces  seen  in  his  generation  were  so 
striking  in  repose;  and  his  genius,  both  in  public  utterance 
and  in  private  conversation,  was  an  affluent  never  assuaged. 
As  a  conversational  wit  he  belonged  to  the  class  of  Sidney 
Smith  and  as  a  pulpit  orator  to  the  class  of  Massillon.  Uni- 
formly, his  sermons  ranged  into  the  realms  of  higher  thought 
and  were  fervid  with  an  eloquence  both  of  nature  and  mastery. 
At  times  his  utterances  attained  a  sublimity  which  seemed  to 
transport  his  auditors  and  to  make  them  forget  their  surround- 
ings and,  indeed,  all  things  except  their  own  deeper  mental 
concerns.  Nor  was  he  impractical  in  matters  of  fiscal  responsi- 
bility and  administration,  as  so  many  men  of  great  gifts  have 
been.  Conservative,  oftentimes  almost  to  the  point  of  reac- 
tion, he  was  yet  wise,  far-seeing,  and  trustworthy  in  great  and 
trying  exigencies,  so  many  of  which  came  upon  the  Church 
during  the  thirty-six  years  of  his  episcopacy.  His  talents  were 
not  only  of  a  high  order  throughout,  but  were  remarkably 
varied.  His  employment  as  pastor,  presiding  elder,  educa- 
tional leader,  and  bishop  gave  full  play  to  these  powers.  To 
the  proper  tasks  of  his  office  he  added  authorship,  and  with  no 
indifferent  success.  His  thoughts  and  literary  conceits,  ex- 
pressed both  in  prose  and  verse,  delighted  and  instructed  the 
generation  to  which  he  belonged.  His  story,  "Post  Oak  Cir- 
cuit," has  been  described,  not  improperly,  as  a  classic.  Had  its 
natural  field  been  wider,  it  might  have  been  a  competitor  of 
"Silas  Marner."   A  sacred  lyric,  "The  Eternal  Son,"  has  much 


201 


History  of  Methodism. 


more  poetic  merit  than  the  ecclesiastical  verse  which  has  given 
Charles  Kingsley  a  place  amongst  English  poets.  Bishop 
Keener  was  long  a  patient  student  of  biological  and  evolu- 
tional science;  but  he  had  given  a  too  self-committed  allegiance 
to  the  school  of  the  literalists  to  be  able  to  accept  the  conclu- 
sions of  modern  science  where,  even  to  a  less  open  mind,  under 
different  conditions,  they  had  become  both  self-evident  and 
necessary.  Theology  was  his  field,  and  to  this  he  drew  his 
studies  and  thought.  The  ultimate  doctrines  of  Christology, 
soteriology,  and  eschatology  were  his  master  subjects.  It  was 
familiarity  with  these  that  gave  to  his  preaching  so  distinct 
an  unction  and  spiritual  power.  He  had  brought  his  religious 
experience  and  emotions  to  answer  to  the  fundamentals  of  the 
Christ  life,  the  Christ  power,  and  the  Christ  glory.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Atonement  was  the  streaming  sea  out  of  which  his 
faith  and  inspired  fancy  drew  those  celestial  burdens  of  appeal 
and  description  which  in  his  sermons  broke  like  cloudbursts 
upon  his  audiences. 

Bishop  Keener  was  born  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  Feb- 
ruary 7,  1819.  When  about  eighteen  years  of  age  he  went  to 
the  State  of  Alabama,  where  he  was  converted  in  1837.  Five 
years  later  he  entered  the  ministry  and  joined  the  Mobile  Con- 
ference. But  a  little  while  after  this  he  was  transferred  to 
Louisiana  and  given  work  in  New  Orleans.  As  pastor,  pre- 
siding elder,  and  editor  of  the  Xew  Orleans  Christian  Advocate, 
he  rose  rapidly  and  surely,  his  labors  being  marked  by  infalli- 
ble proofs  of  efficiency  in  the  salvation  of  men.  At  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1870,  held  in  Memphis,  Term.,  he  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy.  At  the  General  Conference  held  in  Balti- 
more in  1808,  being  then  in  his  eightieth  year,  he  asked  to  be 
retired  from  the  active  work  of  the  episcopal  office.  The  scene 
created  by  this  request,  which  has  been  adverted  to  in  a  for- 
mer chapter,  was  one  of  great  dignity  and  impressiveness.  He 
not  only  outlived  nearly  all  the  members  of  his  own  family, 
but  the  associates  and  compeers  of  his  younger  ministry.  The 
memory  which  he  left  is  that  of  a  mighty  man — mighty  in  the 
power  of  God  and  in  the  gifts  which  that  power  stimulated. 

Bishop  Robert  K.  Hargrove  preceded  his  great  colleague. 
Bishop  Keener,  into  reward  by  the  space  of  five  months,  dying 


Death  of  Bishop  Hargrove. 


205 


on  August  3,  1905.  As  compared  with  Bishop  Keener,  Bishop 
Hargrove  belonged  to  another  intellectual  mold  entirely  and 
had  been  influenced  by  vastly  different  intellectual  ideals. 
Educated  and  trained  in  the  schools  and  giving  much  of  the 
time  of  his  earlier  ministry  to  educational  work,  Bishop  Har- 
grove never  aspired  to  go  beyond  the  necessary  homiletic  work 
of  his  study  or  the  routine  preparation  for  his  classroom.  He 
was  not  a  man  of  the  pen  or  of  specialties.  His  sermons  were 
conceived  and  built  upon  lines  of  severity  in  style  and  plain- 
ness and  unadorned  simplicity  of  statement.  His  methods 
were  logical,  sound,  direct,  and  earnest;  but  he  was  never 
rhetorical,  never  ornate.  He  rarely  appeared  in  the  public 
prints  of  the  Church.  As  a  pastor  he  was  painstaking,  dili- 
gent, and  faithful.  As  a  teacher  his  work  was  honest  and  ef- 
fective. His  colleagues  esteemed  him  to  be  an  unusually  safe 
and  conservative  counselor,  never  hasty  in  advising  an  issue. 
Bishop  McTyeire  ranked  him  as  one  of  the  most  statesmanlike 
and  far-seeing  churchmen  of  his  day.  Though  he  differed  from 
Bishop  Keener  in  intellectual  temperament,  he  much  "resembled 
him  in  his  sturdier  qualities.  Unlike  Bishop  Keener,  he  was 
but  an  indifferent  conversationalist  and  seldom  or  never  scintil- 
lated with  wit  or  humor ;  yet  when  grave  matters  were  up,  his 
words  were  measured  and  sage.  His  loyalty  to  duty  and  con- 
viction became  proverbial  and  cost  him  not  a  little  in  the  way 
of  critical  judgment;  but  he  lived  unmoved  by  gibe  or  criti- 
cism. Bishop  Hargrove  was  born  in  Pickens  County,  Ala., 
September  17,  1829.  His  family  was  related  to  that  of  Bishop 
McKendree.  With  the  best  antecedents,  he  had  an  ideal  start 
in  life,  graduating  from  the  University  of  Alabama  and  having 
health,  family  influence,  and  a  competence.  He  immediately 
became  a  professor  in  his  Alma  Mater  and  continued  to  fill  a 
chair  therein  until,  with  the  deepening  of  his  religious  life,  he 
chose  the  ministry  and  joined  the  Alabama  Conference  in  1857. 
For  nearly  ten  years  he  filled  important  stations  in  that  Con- 
ference and  for  two  years  was  at  the  head  of  Centenary  Insti- 
tute. In  1868  he  was  transferred  to  Kentucky,  but  at  the  end 
of  one  year  was  retransf erred  to  Tennessee,  where,  in  station, 
school,  and  district  work,  he  continued  until  May,  1882,  when 
he  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy,  though  not  at  the  time  a 


206 


History  of  Methodism. 


member  of  the  General  Conference.  After  the  death  of  Bishop 
McTyeire,  he  became  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of 
Vanderbilt  University,  continuing  in  that  office  until  the  time 
of  his  death. 

A  death  which  brought  general  sorrow  to  the  Connection 
was  that  of  Rev.  James  D.  Barbee,  D.D.,  which  occurred  in 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  December  5,  1904.  Consideration  has  already 
been  given  to  the  work  of  Dr.  Barbee  as  Publishing  Agent  and 
also  to  the  part  which  he  took  in  the  collection  of  the  war  claim 
of  the  Church  against  the  general  government.  But  the  record 
of  his  life  as  a  servant  of  the  Church  and  one  of  its  most  dis- 
tinguished ministers  was  written  large  before  his  call  to  fiscal 
responsibility.  He  was  born  in  Lawrence  County,  Ala.,  March 
16,  1832.  Exceedingly  rudimentary  was  the  intellectual  train- 
ing which  he  received  in  youth,  but  it  was  characteristic  of 
him  that  he  should  have  displayed  an  early  and  unusual  thirst 
for  knowledge;  nor  was  it  less  characteristic  that  he  should 
have  fallen  unaided  upon  those  unusual  and  effective  expedi- 
ents which  led  him  to  a  goal  of  real  intellectual  greatness. 
When  but  eighteen  years  of  age,  young  Barbee  offered  himself 
as  a  teacher  for  his  neighborhood  school.  The  test  of  his  life 
came  when  he  found  himself  accepted  for  that  office.  Distrust- 
ing his  fitness,  he  hesitated,  but  at  last  with  characteristic  pur- 
pose he  entered  upon  the  task.  The  work  of  a  teacher  proved 
congenial,  and  he  showed  unexpected  aptitude  in  the  work. 
During  two  years  he  taught  this  school,  and  of  all  those  in  it 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  one  who  made  the  most  distinct  prog- 
ress was  the  young  teacher  himself.  In  October,  1.852,  he  was 
received  on  trial  into  the  Tennessee  Conference.  His  rise  to 
popularity  and  success  was  rapid,  and  he  was  soon  filling  the 
first  stations  and  districts  of  the  Conference.  In  1886,  while 
serving  his  fourth  year  at  McKendree  Church,  then  the  leading 
pulpit  of  the  Connection,  he  was  elected  Book  Agent  to  suc- 
ceed Dr.  J.  B.  McFerrin.  deceased.  In  this  office  he  continued 
until  1002.  While  serving  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Nashville 
District  he  frequently  expressed  the  belief  that  he  was  doing 
the  best  work  of  his  life.  He  had  entered  upon  those  last  duties 
with  a  peculiar  zest  and  was  contented  pud  happy  while  he 
ripened  toward  the  kingdom  of  God.    A  great  concourse  of 


J.  D.  Barbee—C.  A.  Fulwood — /.  D.  Vinci  I.  207 


people  from  every  walk  of  life  attended  li is  funeral  and  paid 
tribute  to  his  worth  and  greatness. 

A  detailed  study  of  the  ministerial  life  of  Dr.  Barbee  would 
furnish  material  for  a  manual  of  superior  value  to  young 
preachers.  Each  lower  station  was  quitted  for  a  higher  with 
the  approving  sense  that  he  had  wrought  his  best.  There  was 
little  of  the  blandishment  of  style  and  almost  nothing  of  the 
actor  in  his  pulpit  work.  His  language  was  strong,  direct,  and 
perspicuous.  He  would  have  been  marked  in  any  assembly  as 
a  man  of  note.  His  ancestors  were  soldiers,  reformers,  and 
builders  of  the  commonwealth.  With  little  aid  from  masters 
and  in  contradiction  of  precedents,  he  made  good  the  pledges  of 
his  blood.  Above  all  these  he  put  on  a  coat  of  fervent  charity 
and  lived  in  the  presence  of  his  God. 

The  Rev.  Charles  A.  Fulwood,  of  the  Florida  Conference,  who 
died  during  the  session  of  that  body  in  December,  1905,  was 
entitled  to  be  called  "the  apostle  to  the  Cubans/'  he  being  the 
founder  of  the  earliest  of  the  missions  of  the  Church  for  that 
people.  There  was  nothing  in  his  life  to  distinguish  him  from 
other  consecrated  men  of  his  station,  except  the  zeal  and  in- 
telligent efforts  which  he  gave  to  the  cause  of  Cuban  evangeli- 
zation. He  not  only  organized  the  Cuban  work  in  Key  West, 
but  became  the  first  superintendent  of  the  mission  in  the  is- 
land of  Cuba.  His  ministry  extended  over  a  period  of  sixty 
years,  spent  successfully  as  circuit  rider,  station  preacher, 
presiding  elder,  and  missionary  extraordinary.  Born  in  1826, 
he  was,  consequently,  at  the  time  of  his  death  nearly  eighty 
years  of  age.  He  died  suddenly  during  a  sitting  of  the  Con- 
ference and  just  after  he  had  addressed  the  body. 

Rev.  John  D.  Vincil,  D.D.,  for  forty-one  years  Secretary  of 
the  Missouri  Conference,  had  a  large  place  in  the  hearts  of  his 
ministerial  and  lay  brethren,  by  whom  he  was  honored  in  being 
made  their  representative  in  the  General  Conference  and  in 
other  assemblies.  As  a  preacher  he  was  noted  for  the  spirit- 
ual power  and  soundness  of  his  sermons.  In  his  biography 
great  stress  is  laid  on  his  loyalty  to,  and  his  services  in,  the 
Church  during  the  sad  and  trying  days  in  Missouri  following 
the  War  between  the  States.  At  a  time  when  the  Church  in 
that  region  seemed  all  but  destroyed,  and  without  hope  of  re- 


208 


History  of  Methodism. 


organization,  he  was  one  who  blew  a  trumpet  and  called  the 
scattered  ranks  of  Israel  to  a  new  advance.  With  Rev.  C.  I. 
Vandeventer,  Rev.  W.  M.  Rush,  Rev.  W.  W.  McMurry,  Rev. 
W.  M.  Leftwich,  and  other  heroic  leaders,  he  not  only  saved 
the  Church  from  complete  disintegration,  but  led  it  to  glorious 
victory.  He  was  born  August  24,  1830,  and  died  October  12, 
1904. 

Amongst  other  names  of  well-known  ministers  whose  deaths 
occurred  this  year  are  those  of  the  Rev.  Morris  Evans,  D.D.,  of 
the  Kentucky  Conference,  who  had  given  service  in  the  Pacific, 
the  Baltimore,  and  the  Kentucky  Conferences,  and  who  died 
January  7,  1905,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five;  Rev.  John  W.  Rush, 
D.D.,  of  the  Alabama  Conference,  whose  record  as  pastor,  pre- 
siding elder,  and  editor  is  written  with  the  history  of  his  Con- 
ference for  more  than  half  a  century,  a  record  of  honor,  use- 
fulness, and  exalted  personal  worth,  born  March  22,  1833,  died 
October  6,  1905;  Rev.  W.  F.  Quillian,  D.D.,  of  the  North  Geor- 
gia Conference,  representative  of  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
influential  families  in  the  State,  a  firm  and  enthusiastic  friend 
of  education,  a  mighty  gospel  preacher,  and  described  by  Bishop 
Candler  as  "one  of  the  noblest  men  Georgia  Methodism  has  ever 
produced,"  born  August  7,  1843,  died  November  21,  1905 ;  Rev. 
Alexander  D.  McVoy,  D.D.,  of  the  Louisiana  Conference,  a 
man  of  princely  personality,  a  graduate  of  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity, Middletown,  Conn.,  of  unusual  culture,  a  strong  and  in- 
structive preacher,  and  one  whose  life  was  chiefly  given  to  the 
Christian  education  of  women — born  in  Elizabeth  City,  N.  J., 
May  7,  1838,  died  in  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  April  11,  1905. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  illustrated  the  Berkeleian  saying,  "Westward  the  star 
of  empire  takes  its  way,"  by  selecting  Los  Angeles  as  the  seat 
of  its  General  Conference  for  the  year  1904.  This  great  body 
convened  on  May  4  and,  after  some  delay  caused  by  the  deten- 
tion of  several  delegations  en  route,  entered  into  one  of  the 
most  eventful  sessions  of  its  history. 

The  Bishops'  Address,  read  by  the  veteran  Senior  Bishop 
Foss.  was  a  very  elaborate  document,  covering  a  variety  of 
topics,  and  occupied  much  time  and  space  in  pointing  out  cur- 
rent evils,  and,  as  described  by  a  connection al  editor  of  the 


General  Conference  of  190%. 


209 


North,  was  "noncommittal  and  colorless  with  regard  to  the 
time  limit,  the  missionary  episcopate,  and  some  other  matters 
upon  which  leadership  is  needed,  but  presented  a  very  valuable 
and  suggestive  chapter  on  popular  amusements  to  be  placed 
under  the  head  of  'Advices'  in  the  Discipline,  should  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  so  decide." 

Attention  was  called  by  the  bishops  to  the  fact  that  during 
the  quadrennium  the  Church  had  lost  through  death  more  of 
its  bishops  than  in  any  similar  period  preceding.  Five  of  the 
General  Superintendents,  dissimilar  in  many  points  and  alike 
in  little  else  than  ability  and  steadfast  devotion  to  their  work, 
were  numbered  amongst  those  translated  to  the  higher  ranks. 
These  were  Parker,  Taylor,  Ninde,  Foster,  and  Hurst.  Their 
colleagues  made  this  summary  of  the  personality  and  gifts  of 
their  departed  brethren — viz.:  Parker,  stalwart,  resourceful, 
tireless,  a  great  missionary,  fell  under  the  torrid  sky  of  India, 
to  whose  salvation  he  had  been  devoted  for  forty-one  years. 
Taylor,  a  world-famous  evangelist  and  strenuous  advocate  of 
self-supporting  missions,  was  halted  in  his  swift  career  a  few 
years  before  his  final  summons,  which  reached  him  near  the 
scenes  of  his  early  triumphs  as  a  preacher.  Ninde,  serene,  cul- 
tured, saintly,  had  just  returned  from  a  tour  of  Conferences  in 
the  South,  hastened  forth  from  his  home  on  an  errand  of  sym- 
pathy, came  in  exhausted,  and  during  the  following  night  he 
felt  the  thrill  of  the  eternal  sunburst.  Foster  was  stately, 
learned,  the  soul  of  honor,  superbly  eloquent ;  Hurst,  scholarly, 
many-sided,  a  prodigy  of  industry  and  persistency.  They  were, 
successively,  Presidents  of  Drew  Seminary,  were  among  the 
ablest  and  most  voluminous  authors  of  Methodism,  and  depart- 
ed this  life  within  thirty- six  hours  of  each  other,  while  their 
colleagues  were  assembled  in  their  annual  meeting. 

The  deaths  of  three  other  general  officers  of  the  Church  were 
also  announced — namely :  Dr.  Arthur  Edwards,  the  veteran 
editor  of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate,  who  had  ren- 
dered long  and  efficient  service  to  the  Church  and  humanity ; 
Dr.  William  A.  Spencer  and  Dr.  Manley  S.  Hard,  who  had  both 
been  Corresponding  Secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion and  who  had  both  been  conspicuous  in  the  advocacy  of  the 
great  cause  which  they  represented;  Dr.  Stephen  L.  Baldwin, 
14. 


210 


History  of  Methodism. 


Recording  Secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society ;  and  thirty  min- 
isterial and  lay  delegates  who  had  served  in  the  previous  Gen- 
eral Conference. 

The  Episcopal  Address  reported  a  steady  and  healthful,  but 
not  a  rapid,  increase  in  the  general  membership  of  the  Church. 
The  total  was  somewhat  more  than  three  million,  an  increase 
of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty -eight  thousand  for  the  quad- 
rennium.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  Sunday  school  officers, 
teachers,  and  scholars  was  reported  at  one  hundred  and  nine- 
teen thousand;  and  the  membership  of  the  Sunday  school  was 
somewhat  greater  than  the  general  membership  of  the  Church. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  General  Conference  in  the 
North  had  not  provided  for  a  Twentieth-Century  Offering,  but 
that  it  was  provided  for  by  special  call  from  the  bishops.  The 
transition  of  the  world  from  one  century  to  another  was  an 
event  which  so  great  a  body  of  Christians  could  not  afford  to 
overlook.  The  bishops  proposed  a  plan  "so  vast  and  far- 
reaching  that  it  was  at  first  received  with  startled  surprise, 
but  presently  with  enthusiasm  and  heroic  cooperation."  The 
call  was  for  twenty  million  dollars,  one-half  for  educational 
institutions  and  one-half  for  Church  debts  and  other  causes  of 
philanthropy  and  charity. 

A  previous  General  Conference  had  planned  for  a  great  Mis- 
sionary, or  "Open-Door  Emergency,"  Convention,  which  was 
held  in  Cleveland  in  October,  1902.  That  convention  became 
historic  as  a  season  of  Pentecostal  uplift  and  consecration. 
Its  proceedings  thrilled  and  inspired  the  thousands  who  were 
present  with  a  deep  missionary  interest  and  conviction.  The 
bishops  now  reported  that  in  one  solemn  and  memorable  hour 
pledges  and  offerings  were  made  to  the  extent  of  three  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  dollars,  all  of  which  was  to  be  distinctly 
additional  to  the  regular  missionary  contributions.  The  follow- 
ing selection  from  the  Episcopal  Address,  pertinent  to  the  greal 
age  then  beginning,  is  worthy  of  record  for  review  and  study : 

In  view  of  the  signal  honor  which  God  has  thus  put  upon  Methodism, 
both  within  and  beyond  its  own  borders,  and  of  the  close  and  manifestly 
causal  relation  between  the  life  and  the  experience  of  Wesley  and  such 
unparalleled  successes,  it  behooves  us  to  "stand  m  the  way  and  seek  for 
the  old  paths,"  so  that  we  may  hand  on  to  coming  ages,  unimpaired  and 


Episcopal  Address — Superannuates — Fraternal  Address.  211 


augmented,  the  marvelous  heritage  we  have  received;  for,  beyond  all 
question,  John  Wesley  must  have  ascertained  and  built  upon  funda- 
mental and  imperishable  truths,  else  the  world  would  never  have  heard 
of  Methodism.  Among  those  truths  which  he  lifted  out  of  the  dust  of 
ages  were  at  least  these:  The  deep  guilt  of  sin;  the  equal  redemption 
of  all  men  by  the  vicarious  atonement;  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  hu- 
man will;  the  entire  practicability  of  salvation  now  for  any  sinner;  the 
attainability  of  perfect  cleansing  and  perfect  love  in  this  life;  the  in- 
finite and  impartial  love  of  the  seeking  Father  God;  the  real  and  com- 
plete humanity  and  the  proper  and  absolute  deity  of  Jesus  Christ;  the 
personality  and  omnipresence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  transforming  and 
witnessing  Spirit;  and  the  nearness  of  a  real  and  eternal  heaven  and  a 
real  and  eternal  hell.  No  doubt  the  vast  mass  of  the  Methodists  in  all 
lands  can  sincerely  say  of  these  truths,  so  vital  to  Methodism  and  to 
any  real  progress  of  Christianity:  "All  these  things  I  steadfastly  be- 
lieve." 

An  early  and  astonishing  action  of  the  Conference  was  to 
superannuate  six  of  the  General  Superintendents  at  one  time. 
These  were:  Bishop  Merrill,  in  his  seventy-ninth  year;  Bishop 
E.  G.  Andrews,  also  seventy -nine ;  Bishop  Cyrus  D.  Foss, 
seventy-one  years  of  age;  Bishop  John  M.  Walden,  seventy- 
three  years  of  age;  Bishop  Willard  F.  Mallalieu,  in  his  seventy- 
sixth  year;  and  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent,  aged  seventy-two. 
Thus  was  established  the  "age  limit"  in  that  jurisdiction — a 
rule  which  has  been  very  steadily  observed,  the  bishops  retiring 
automatically  after  the  age  of  seventy. 

The  fraternal  visitations  at  this  Conference  were  very  felici- 
tous. The  fraternal  representative  of  the  Church,  South,  was 
Dr.  John  C.  Kilgo,  since  made  a  bishop.  Of  his  visit  and  ad- 
dress, a  discriminating  correspondent  said:  "His  faculty  for 
extemporaneous  speech,  his  old-fashioned  fervor,  his  fervid 
eloquence,  his  honest  avowal  of  love  for  his  section,  the  sunny 
South,  and  of  a  larger  and  more  comprehensive  love  for  the 
nation,  his  tributes  to  the  old-fashioned  circuit  rider,  his 
description  of  the  part  which  that  character  has  taken  in  the 
building  of  our  American  civilization,  and  his  glorious  sermon 
on  a  Sunday  in  our  First  Church  here,  heard  by  twenty-five 
hundred  enraptured  people — all  this  greatly  endeared  him  to 
us.    He  worthily  represented  his  constituency." 

A  great  constitutional  question  came  up  and  was  tested  out 
in  the  lists.    Tt  was:  "Has  the  General  Conference  the  au- 


212 


History  of  Methodism. 


thority  under  the  constitution  to  form  groups  of  Annual  Con- 
ferences and  district  the  General  Superintendents  so  that  a 
bishop,  by  the  direction  of  the  General  Conference,  shall  be  re- 
quired to  administer  the  Conferences  in  his  district,  and  those 
only,  for  four  years  or  longer?"  Dr.  T.  B.  Neely  and  other  de- 
baters defended  this  position,  but  they  were  overwhelmingly 
defeated.  Dr.  C.  W.  Smith,  author  of  the  new  constitution,  took 
the  opposite  side  and,  with  others,  by  a  plain  course  of  argu- 
ment, settled  this  as  a  principle :  "That,  while  the  bishops  them- 
selves may  arrange  their  work  in  groups  and  even,  perhaps, 
district  one  or  more  of  their  number,  such  function  is  a  purely 
episcopal  prerogative  guaranteed  by  the  constitution,  and  that 
any  attempt  of  the  General  Conference  to  do  this  thing  is  for- 
bidden by  the  third  Restrictive  Rule  of  the  organic  law  of  the 
Church." 

Seven  new  bishops  were  elected  at  this  sitting,  as  follows: 
Dr.  Joseph  F.  Berry,  forty -eight  years  of  age;  Dr.  Henry  Spell- 
meyer,  fifty-six  years  of  age ;  Dr.  W.  F.  McDowell,  Dr.  James 
W.  Bashford,  Dr.  William  Burt,  Dr.  Luther  B.  Wilson,  and 
Dr.  Thomas  B.  Neely.  An  eighth  bishop  was  elected,  Chan- 
cellor James  R.  Day,  of  Syracuse  University;  but  after  deep 
consideration  of  the  matter  he  felt  impelled  to  decline  the 
honor.  Three  other  such  declinations  are  on  record :  Wilbur 
Fisk,  who  declined  ordination  in  1836;  Joshua  Soule,  who  de- 
clined ordination  in  1820;  and  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  who  de- 
clined ordination  in  1882,  but  who,  upon  his  second  election, 
in  1890,  accepted  the  responsibility. 

Connectional  officers  were  elected  as  follows — viz. :  Dr.  W. 
F.  Anderson,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education;  Dr.  John 
T.  MacFarland,  Editor  of  Sunday  School  Publications;  Dr.  Ed- 
ward M.  Randall,  Secretary  of  Epworth  Leagues;  and  Dr.  S. 
J.  Herben,  Editor  of  the  Eptcorth  Herald.  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley, 
long  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  was  returned  to  the 
editorship  of  that  journal ;  and  Dr.  W.  V.  Kelley,  to  the  editor- 
ship of  the  Methodist  Review. 

Before  adjourning,  the  Conference  wrestled  with  the  prob- 
lem of  consolidating  a  number  of  its  boards,  its  publishing 
enterprises,  and  in  otherwise  reducing  the  intricacies  and  ex- 
penses of  administration.   It  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  method 


Canadian  Methodism — Union.  213 


of  reorganizing  and  readjusting  Church  departments  which  is 
in  operation  in  both  of  the  Connections. 

The  problems  of  Canadian  Methodism,  noted  in  paragraphs 
covering  the  history  of  a  former  quadrenniuin,  were  being  em- 
phasized during  this  period.  The  ends  of  the  earth  were  meet- 
ing on  the  great  Western  prairies  of  the  Dominion  and  creating 
new  fields  and  new  tasks  of  evangelism  faster  than  the  Church's 
resources  availed  to  meet  them.  The  common  school  system — 
thanks  to  a  Methodist  preacher,  the  late  Eugene  Ryerson,  who 
had  determined  and  impressed  the  system  as  no  other  man 
had — was  meeting  the  direct  intellectual  needs  of  the  people; 
but  their  spiritual  needs  were  with  the  Church,  and  Methodism, 
as  the  chief  religious  force  of  the  Dominion,  was  being  looked 
to  for  leadership  in  evangelization.  The  population  of  the 
whole  of  Canada  was  then  about  five  and  one-half  million. 
The  membership  of  the  Church  was  a  little  less  than  310,000, 
or  something  less  than  one  out  of  ten  of  all  the  people.  The 
membership  in  the  Sunday  school  was  reported  to  be  321,492, 
or  one  out  of  every  three  of  all  the  children  in  the  Dominion. 

The  Canadian  Methodist  Missionary  Society,  then  under  the 
direction  of  Dr.  Sutherland,  who  was  in  the  thirty-second  year 
of  continuous  service  in  that  office,  reported  for  1905  a  total 
of  |336,000  for  missions — an  average  of  $1.10  per  member — a 
record  which  has  been  seldom  reached,  not  to  say  surpassed. 
The  Financial  Board  reported  eleven  colleges  at  which  were 
registered  3,000  students  in  arts  and  theology. 

At  this  time  the  Union  Movement  amongst  the  Protestant 
Churches  of  Canada  had  reached  the  height  of  its  development. 
The  Methodists,  Presbyterians,  and  Congregational  ists  seemed 
to  be  near  the  point  of  doctrinal  and  organic  coalescence.  This 
movement  had  been  largely  influenced  by  the  confederation 
into  one  government  of  all  the  British  possessions  in  North 
America. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Canadian  General  Conference  in  the 
city  of  Winnipeg  in  September,  1902,  a  resolution  was  unani- 
mously passed  declaring  that  "the  Conference  would  view  with 
great  satisfaction  a  movement  looking  toward  the  ultimate 
organic  union  of  the  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  and  Meth- 
odist Churches  of  Canada."   This  resolution  was  in  due  course 


214 


History  of  Methodism. 


far-warded  to  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  which  met 
in  the  following  year,  and  also  to  the  Congregational  Union, 
the  representative  body  of  that  denomination.  In  response  to 
the  resolutions,  these  bodies  appointed  committees  which  soon 
afterwards  met  in  joint  session  in  the  Wesley  Buildings  in 
Toronto.  After  much  deliberation  and  earnest  conversation, 
the  joint  committee  unanimously  reached  the  conclusion  that 
union  was  not  only  desirable,  but  practicable ;  and  the  commit- 
tee pledged  itself  to  do  everything  in  its  power  to  bring  that 
union  about. 

The  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  which  met  in  the  fol- 
lowing June  appointed  a  still  larger  and  more  representative 
committee  to  consider  the  wThole  question.  Similar  committees 
were  constituted  from  the  other  Churches  and  held  a  second 
meeting  in  Toronto  in  the  following  December.  Subcommittees 
being  appointed  to  consider  various  relevant  details,  a  third 
meeting  was  held  one  year  later.  At  this  meeting  it  was  found 
that  the  Committee  on  Doctrines  had  reached  a  basis  outlined 
in  nineteen  articles,  one  on  each  of  the  following  subjects — 
viz. :  God,  Revelation,  the  Divine  Purpose,  Creation  and  Provi- 
dence, the  Sin  of  Man,  the  Grace  of  God,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Holy  Spirit,  Faith  and  Regeneration,  the  Church,  the 
Sacraments,  the  Ministry,  Church  Order  and  Fellowship,  the 
Resurrection,  the  Last  Judgment,  the  Future  Life,  Christian 
Service,  and  Final  Triumph. 

After  more  than  fourteen  years,  as  already  noted  in  these 
pages,  these  particular  and  well-matured  plans  of  union  have  not 
been  realized.  Each  of  the  Churches  seems  more  or  less  doubt- 
ful of  the  expediency  and,  it  may  even  be  said,  the  possibility 
of  such  a  union.  The  chief  difficulty  is  that  of  doctrine.  Men's 
interpretations  of  the  gospel  and  their  convictions  concerning 
orders,  ordinances,  and  ritual  are  the  last  things  of  the  mind  to 
be  yielded ;  and  often  when  concessions  have  been  made  on  these 
points  the  private  consciences  of  individuals  have  protested 
against  pact  and  agreement.  The  plausible  and  fascinating 
scheme  of  doctrinal  restatement  exhibited  in  these  plans  of  the 
Canadians  led  to  an  inexplicable,  but  rather  romantic,  misad- 
venture of  a  somewhat  like  character  in  the  Southern  General 
Conference  of  1006,  of  which  a  full  account  is  to  be  given  later. 


Wesleyan  Leaders  and  Discipline. 


215 


The  Kev.  Charles  H.  Kelly,  D.D.,  President  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Conference  for  the  second  time,  in  15)05  reported  that 
the  efforts  of  the  Church  in  the  Motherland  "to  reach  the  un- 
saved multitudes"  had  been  "crowned  with  notable  success. " 
Besides  Dr.  Kelly,  then  more  than  seventy  years  of  age,  but 
alive  with  enthusiasm  and  enterprise,  the  Connection  was  still 
blessed  with  the  presence  and  counsel  of  Dr.  Rigg,  "the  greatest 
intellect  of  modern  English  Methodism" ;  Dr.  Waller,  ex-Presi- 
dent of  the  Conference,  educational  expert,  master  of  assem- 
blies, and  ecclesiastical  lawyer;  Dr.  Henry  Pope,  "aflame  with 
passion  for  the  spiritual  conquest  of  England" ;  Dr.  W.  T.  Davi- 
son, an  eloquent  and  rarely  cultured  man,  well  known,  as  is 
Dr.  Waller,  on  this  side  the  Atlantic ;  Ex-President  McDonald, 
whom  Morley  Punshon  described  as  "wise  and  winsome,  cul- 
tured and  consecrated,  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews";  Dr.  W.  L. 
Watkinson ;  and,  by  no  means  least,  the  noble  layman,  Sir  Rob- 
ert W.  Perks,  as  also  many  others  known  to  universal  Method- 
ism. 

The  English  Methodists  were  in  these  years  described  as 
being  zealous  for  their  discipline,  faithful  to  the  class  meet- 
ings, and  devoted  to  the  general  work  of  the  Connection.  They 
were  loyal,  but  not  bigoted.  Following  the  spirit  of  their  former 
great  leader,  they  could  say :  "We  are  glad  to  warm  our  hands 
at  another  man's  fireside;  but,  after  all,  we  love  our  own  fire- 
side best."  The  relations  between  Methodism  and  the  other 
Nonconformist  Churches  have  always  been  frank  and  most  cor- 
dial. 

The  Home  Missionary  Department  of  the  Connection  was  re- 
ported to  be  virile  and  effective  to  a  degree  surpassing  any 
former  record.  In  the  great  cities  large  halls  were  being  built, 
as  in  a  former  time,  into  which  were  being  gathered  great 
multitudes  of  people  to  hear  the  gospel.  Not  one  of  these  was 
found  uncrowded  on  Sabbath  evenings,  and  the  average  seating 
capacity  was  not  less  than  twenty-five  hundred.  The  men  and 
women  who  went  into  these  halls  would  not  have  gone  into 
the  ordinary  churches.  For  these  halls  the  best  ministers  of 
the  Connection  were  picked.  It  has  already  been  seen  that  the 
beginning  of  this  movement  was  led  by  such  men  as  Hugh 
Price  Hughes  and  Mark  Guy  Pearse.    Besides  the  City  Hall 


210 


History  of  Methodism. 


work,  the  home  mission  service  was  being  extended  to  the  army 
and  navy.  Much  attention  was  also  being  given  to  the  estab- 
lishment and  use  of  institutional  Churches,  dispensaries,  and 
other  agencies  for  meeting  the  needs  of  the  neglected  poor  of 
the  cities.  In  addition  to  these  notes  of  progress  was  added 
one  concerning  the  work  of  the  young  people.  The  Wesley 
Guilds  were  doing  an  excellent  work  in  inspiring  the  young 
men  and  women  with  a  knowledge  of  Methodist  history  and 
k'with  the  fine  contagion  of  the  hereditary  Methodist  spirit." 
England  was  also  waking  up,  through  its  Churches  and  es- 
pecially through  Methodism,  to  the  evil  of  drink.  The  lessons 
of  reform  have  been  tremendously  emphasized  in  more  recent 
years.  The  Children's  Home  work  and  that  of  the  deaconess 
organization  were  found  to  fit  well  in  the  large  plans  of  modern 
English  Methodism.  Contrary  to  the  experience  of  all  the 
Methodist  communities  in  North  America,  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists reported  an  unprecedented  interest  in  their  Church  lit- 
erature, especially  in  their  weekly  journals  and  other  connec- 
tional  periodical  publications. 

English  Methodism  had  also  its  sad  records  of  losses  through 
death.  The  death  date  of  Hugh  Price  Hughes  was  anticipated 
in  a  statement  made  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  history. 
'•Ardent  evangelist,  splendid  defender  of  the  faith,  eloquent 
orator,  apologist-debater,"  his  loss  to  the  Connection  was  in  a 
way  irreparable.  Dr.  Ebenezer  Jenkins,  a  great  divine  and 
noble  type  of  cultured  and  consecrated  Methodist,  was  a  name 
to  be  added  to  that  of  the  great  Church  commoner  and  mis- 
sionary leader. 

The  Conferences  in  Ireland  and  England  are  really  one,  the 
Irish  body  existing  for  convenience  of  administration.  Though 
Methodism  numerically  has  never  been  strong  in  Ireland,  it 
has  yielded  great  results  in  the  souls  and  minds  of  the  men  and 
women  it  has  given  to  the  house  of  Wesley.  Robert  Straw- 
bridge,  who  first  preached  the  gospel  of  Methodism  in  America, 
was  an  Irishman.  William  Thompson,  the  first  President  of 
the  English  Conference  after  the  death  of  John  Wesley,  was 
also  an  Irishman,  ns  were  Adam  Clarke,  the  grent  Method- 
ist commentator.  Dr.  William  Arthur,  author  of  "The  Tongue 
of  Fire."  and  Sir  William  McArthur,  the  great  Methodist 


Irish  and  Australian  Methodism. 


217 


layman,  one-time  Lord  Mayor  of  London.  The  statistics  of 
the  Irish  Connection,  as  given  at  this  time,  were:  Members, 
62,000;  ministers,  200;  circuits,  130;  local  preachers,  700.  But 
the  real  membership  of  the  Irish  Methodist  Church,  then  as 
now,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Methodisms  of  all  the  countries  of 
the  English-speaking  world.  The  Irish  immigrant  has  been  an 
ever-present  recruit  in  the  congregations  of  American  Meth- 
odism. 

Eeports  from  the  Methodism  of  Australia  were  gratifying 
and  showed  the  largest  increase  in  all  its  interests  recorded  for 
many  years.  The  net  additions  were:  New  South  Wales,  1,152  ; 
Victoria  and  Tasmania,  1,505;  South  Australia,  500;  New 
Zealand,  764;  Queensland,  235;  and  West  Australia,  268 — a 
total  of  4,424.  This  remarkable  growth  was  attributable  to 
an  extraordinary  evangelistic  effort  throughout  the  Antipodes. 
The  returns  of  Sunday  school  scholars  and  teachers  was  in 
keeping  with  this  record.  The  schools  and  colleges  also  made 
a  good  showing.  Queen's  University  College,  in  Melbourne, 
had  more  applicants  than  it  could  accommodate.  Wesley 
College,  a  secondary  school  in  Melbourne,  and  the  Method- 
ist Ladies'  College  had  to  refuse  applications  for  entrance. 
Prince  Alfred  College,  of  Adelaide,  headed  the  list  with  four 
hundred  students.  The  test  of  Methodism  in  Australia  has 
been  its  competition  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  strongly 
represented  in  large  elements  of  earlier  and  later  immigration ; 
but  the  spirit  of  Wesleyanism  has  laid  a  strong  and  persistent 
hold  upon  the  Land  of  the  South  Seas. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


A  Magic  City — Southern  General  Conference  of  1906 — Southern  Pros- 
perity— Statistics — Bishops'  Address — Young  J.  Allen— Methodist 
Church  of  Japan — Commission  on  Federal  Council  of  Churches — Col- 
ored Education — Congo  Outrages — A  Colored  Missionary — Related 
Matters — Jamestown  Tercentenary — San  Francisco  Earthquake — 
Vanderbilt  University  Commission — Unification  of  Missionary  Boards 
— Consolidation  of  Church  Papers — Legislation — Proposed  Restate- 
ment of  Faith — Fraternal  Sessions — Episcopal  Elections — Bishops 
Tigert  and  Ward — Connectional  Officers — P.  H.  Whisner — The  Last  of 
the  Patriarchs  of  1844 — Bishops  Granbery  and  Smith — Some  Meth- 
odist Historians — Death  of  Young  J.  Allen — Paul  Whitehead — John  J. 
Lafferty— Other  Editors— Bishop  Duncan— 1906-1909. 

I  F  the  material  prosperity  of  the  States  of  the  South  was 


1  thought  a  matter  worthy  of  special  comment  in  summing 
up  the  advances  of  other  quadrenniums,  the  conditions  amid 
which  the  General  Conference  of  1906  met  were  calculated  to 
inspire  feelings  of  thanksgiving  and  confidence.  The  session 
was  held  in  the  auditorium  of  the  magnificent  First  Church, 
Birmingham,  Ala.,  a  city  which,  like  its  English  original,  has 
well  merited  the  title  of  "Magic."  The  conjunction  of  place 
and  time  was  fitting.  The  delegations  had  before  them,  not 
the  task  of  planning  for  the  refilling  of  depleted  treasuries  or 
the  building  up  of  a  wasted  heritage,  but  that  of  administering 
a  vastly  augmented  trust,  as  also  that  of  adjusting  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  Church  to  the  cultivation  of  multiplying  fields 
in  a  golden  land.  The  completion  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  was 
in  contemplation.  The  effect  of  the  prospect  was  already  being 
felt  in  the  industrial,  commercial,  and  financial  plannings  of 
the  people.  The  population  of  the  South  was  experiencing  a 
surprising  growth.  It  was  then  25,000,000,  as  against  only 
about  34,000,000  for  all  the  rest  of  the  country  twenty-five 
years  before.  In  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  the  output 
of  coal  and  iron,  and  in  the  value  of  farm  products,  the  ratio 
of  increase  had  ceased  to  be  a  matter  of  percentage  and  had 
become  one  of  reduplication.  New  Orleans  was  now  the  second 
port  of  importance  on  the  continent,  and  Galveston  was  third 
in  the  matter  of  exportations.    Contagious  fevers  and  other 


(218) 


Remarkable  Growth — Galloway — Young  J.  Allen.  219 


epidemic  diseases,  once  the  terror  of  the  land,  had  been  stamped 
out  along  the  entire  Southern  seacoast,  and  its  cities  had  be- 
come resorts  for  comfort-seeking  multitudes,  both  in  winter 
and  summer.  The  system  of  common  school  education,  with 
accessories  for  teaching  the  higher  branches,  had  been  brought 
to  a  surprising  degree  of  perfection  in  most  of  the  cotton 
States. 

The  statistical  returns  of  the  Church  for  these  years  were 
not  unworthy  to  be  compared  with  the  exhibits  of  material 
advance  in  the  section  in  which  it  had  its  chief  representation. 
The  increase  in  Church  membership  was  100,427,  as  against 
38,085  for  the  previous  four  years.  The  total  membership  of 
the  Southern  Connection  was  now  more  than  1,600,000,  with 
more  than  1,000,000  scholars  in  its  Sunday  schools  and  120,- 
000  members  in  the  Epworth  League.  The  receipts  of  the 
Foreign  Mission  Board  were  reported  at  f 1,659,941,  an  increase 
over  the  previous  quadrennium  of  $645,673.  When  the  receipts 
of  the  Woman's  Board  were  added  to  those  of  the  General  and 
Annual  Conference  Boards,  the  total  raised  for  missions  in 
the  Church  during  the  year  1905  aggregated  a  sum  equal  to 
nearly  $1,000,000.  Other  departments  shared  this  prosperity. 
The  receipts  of  the  Church  Extension  Board  were  nearly 
doubled,  and  the  gifts  to  education  and  other  causes  were  many 
and  substantial. 

The  Episcopal  Address,  an  eloquent  and  optimistic  docu- 
ment, dealing  with  every  phase  of  the  Church's  need  and  prog- 
ress then  emergent,  was  read  by  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway. 
This  was  the  last  session  of  the  general  body  at  which  this  dis- 
tinguished preacher  and  leader  was  seen.  His  death  occurred 
before  the  close  of  the  next  quadrennium.  Even  then  it  was 
shown  to  his  brethren  that  the  seeds  of  the  disease  which  was 
to  take  him  away  had  been  sown. 

Another  distinguished  son  of  the  Church  whose  face  was  no 
more  to  be  seen  in  the  General  Conference  was  Dr.  Young  J. 
Allen,  the  veteran  missionary  of  Southern  Methodism  in  the 
Chinese  Empire.  The  Conference  in  a  formal  resolution  in- 
vited him  to  deliver  an  address  on  his  experience  and  observa- 
tion during  a  residence  of  more  than  fifty  years  in  that  field. 
This  he  did,  and  his  remarks  were  stenographically  reported 


220 


History  of  Methodism. 


and  printed  in  the  Journal,  constituting  one  of  the  Church's 
enduring  public  documents. 

A  question  which  came  up  in  the  Conference  for  early  dis- 
cussion was  that  of  the  creation  of  an  autonomous  native 
Methodist  Church  in  the  empire  of  Japan.  The  growth  of 
Christian  missions  in  Japan  and  the  rapid  assimilation  of 
Western  ideas  by  its  peoples  had  been  such  that  it  seemed  wise 
to  bring  into  a  closer  union  the  Methodist  missions  exist- 
ing there.  The  question  was  laid  before  the  representative 
bodies  of  the  different  Churches  interested,  with  the  result  that 
commissions  were  appointed  and  clothed  with  power  to  act. 
On  January  3.  1006,  commissioners  from  the  Methodist  Church 
in  Canada,  the.  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
and  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  met  in  Mount  Vernon 
Place,  Baltimore,  for  a  joint  session.  No  definite  conclusion 
was  reached  at  this  sitting.  Later  the  commissioners  met  in 
the  Methodist  Publishing  House,  Nashville,  Tenn.  At  This  time 
(March  1,  1906)  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  : 

That  the  Joint  Commission  do  now  adjourn,  subject  to  call  as  formerly 
provided,  leaving  each  commission  free  to  proceed  with  such  action  as 
may  be  thought  wise  to  effect  a  union  with  one  or  more  bodies  in  Japan, 
under  the  authority  granted  by  their  several  General  Conferences. 

The  commissioners  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
South,  met  in  joint  session  immediately  and  resolved  to  proceed 
at  once  to  effect  the  union  of  the  two  Churches  in  Japan.  To 
this  compact  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church  joined  itself  at  a 
later  date.  On  July  18,  1906,  the  representatives  of  the  three 
Churches  met  in  Buffalo,  X.  Y.,  and  completed  the  plans  of 
union.  Eighteen  Articles  of  Religion,  embodying  the  essentials 
of  the  Twenty-Five  Articles  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  America  (1784 )  and  mainly  expressed  in  the  language  of  the 
original,  were  adopted  for  the  new  Church.  The  Japanese  juris- 
diction is  episcopal  in  form  of  government  and  conforms  in 
nearly  every  particular  to  the  polity  of  its  original.  Tn  accord- 
ance with  these  arrangements  and  this  settlement,  a  General 
Conference  was  convened  in  Tokyo,  Japan,  on  May  22.  1907, 
composed  of  delegates  previously  elected  by  the  Annual  ronfer- 


Japanese  Church — Federal  Council. 


221 


ences  of  the  three  uniting  Churches,  which  proceeded  to  organ- 
ize the  Nippon  Methodist  Kyokwai,  or  Japanese  Methodist 
Church.  The  relation  of  the  mother  Churches  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  is  cooperative  and  advisory.  The  mission- 
aries from  the  American  Connections  hold  their  membership 
in  their  home  Conferences  and  are  supported  by  their  home 
Boards;  but  they  exercise  the  privileges  of  membership  in  the 
Japanese  Annual  Conferences  to  which  they  are  officially  as- 
signed, except  in  matters  affecting  the  character  of  Japanese 
ministers.  The  Rev.  Y.  Honda  was  elected  bishop  of  the 
Church,  and  he  proved  a  wise  and  faithful  overseer ;  but  he  was 
not  long  spared  to  the  infant  Connection,  his  death  occurring 
in  the  second  quadrennium  of  his  service.  The  Japanese  Meth- 
odist Church  began  its  independent  existence  with  more  than 
one  hundred  American  missionaries,  seventy-five  Japanese 
preachers,  seven  thousand  members,  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
nine  Sunday  schools  with  twelve  thousand  scholars,  thirty- 
nine  schools  and  colleges  with  three  thousand  and  fifty-six  stu- 
dents, one  publishing  house,  and  two  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars' worth  of  property. 

In  recent  years  a  strong  and  effective  organization,  known 
as  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America, 
has  attracted  a  large  share  of  Christian  public  interest  and 
has  received  a  wide  indorsement  throughout  the  evangelical 
Churches.  The  cause  of  this  organization  came  officially  be- 
fore the  General  Conference  at  Birmingham  for  the  first  time. 
An  Interchurch  Conference  on  Federation,  which  convened  in 
the  city  of  New  York  November  15-21,  1905,  gave  shape  to  the 
plan  for  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches,  and  the  Confer- 
ence was  asked  to  elect  its  quota  of  members  in  the  same,  the 
number  of  representatives  to  which  the  Church  was  entitled 
being  thirty-six.  The  College  of  Bishops  was  authorized  to 
make  the  assignments,  with  instructions  that  of  the  number- 
six  should  be  from  the  College  of  Bishops,  and  that  for  the 
remainder  an  equal  number  of  ministers  and  laymen  should 
be  designated.  The  purpose  of  this  organization  is  the  pro- 
motion of  fraternity  and  cooperation  amongst  the  Christian 
Churches  and  the  institution  and  encouragement  of  great  mor- 
al, social,  and  spiritual  reforms  in  the  nation. 


222 


H  istory  of  Methodism. 


The  readers  of  this  history  will  have  perceived  that  the 
Church  in  the  South  has  been  constant,  if  not  always  self- 
sacrificing,  in  its  efforts  to  advance  the  religious  and  educa- 
tional interests  of  the  people  of  color,  and  particularly  of  that 
segment  of  the  race  represented  in  the  jurisdiction  which  itself 
created.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  very  practical  turn 
was  at  this  time  given  to  the  Church's  solicitude  for  its  colored 
affiliants.  As  this  action  has  led  to  certain  distinct  and  ef- 
fective measures  for  holding  theological  institutes  on  a  large 
scale  for  ministers  of  all  the  colored  Churches,  it  is  thought 
well  to  reproduce  the  main  member  of  the  empowering  resolu- 
tions : 

Resolved,  That  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  assembled  in  Birmingham,  hereby  requests  the  College 
of  Bishops  to  appoint  a  commission  of  five  to  meet  a  similar  commis- 
sion of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to  be  provided  by  the 
General  Conference  now  in  session  in  the  city  of  Memphis,  Tenn., 
which  commissions  shall  be  authorized  to  confer  with  each  other  con- 
cerning the  holding  of  institutes  for  colored  preachers,  the  furtherance 
of  educational  work,  the  promotion  of  missionary  efforts  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  such  questions  as  may  pertain  to  federation  and  union  of 
the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America  with  other  Colored 
Methodist  Churches  in  the  United  States. 

In  its  order,  and  otherwise  pertinently,  comes  in  this  con- 
nection the  action  of  the  Conference  on  the  then  world-en- 
gaging matter  of  Belgian  administrative  abuses  in  the  Congo 
Free  State.  For  a  decade  or  more  the  stories  of  atrocities 
committed  upon  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  Congo  Basin 
were  the  scandal  of  the  world.  The  action  of  the  Conference 
was:  "That  we  earnestly  insist,  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  for 
the  human  race  for  which  he  sacrificed  his  life,  that  nothing 
less  than  the  immediate,  thoroughgoing,  and  permanent  right 
ing  of  these  tragic  wrongs  can  satisfy  the  common  conscience  of 
Christendom."  This  Congo  Basin  is  the  scene  of  the  Church's 
latest  missionary  enterprise. 

Apropos  of  the  action  above  reported.  Rev.  W.  H.  H.  Bhep- 
pard,  a  native  American  negro  missionary  of  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church  to  the  Congo,  was  introduced  and  made 
an  address  full  of  instruction  concerning  the  people  and  the 
conditions  of  that  benighted  region.    It  is  now  interesting  to 


Africa — Immigration — Jamestown — San  Francisco.  223 


recall  that  Bishop  Joshua  Soule,  the  first  senior  bishop  of  the 
Southern  Church,  was  planning,  just  prior  to  the  Separation 
in  1844,  to  go  in  person  to  the  West  African  Coast  for  the 
purpose  of  looking  out  and  opening  a  missionary  field  to  be 
cultivated  by  the  Church.  Only  the  untoward  course  of  events 
prevented  his  carrying  out  his  purpose. 

A  number  of  more  or  less  related  matters  which  became  sub- 
jects of  General  Conference  action  may  be  here  adverted  to. 
The  controversy  between  the  American  and  Japanese  govern- 
ments concerning  Japanese  immigration  and  the  agrarian 
rights  of  Japanese  subjects  in  America  was  at  its  height.  The 
Conference  requested  of  the  authorities  at  Washington  "such 
interpretation  of  existing  laws  as  will  not  allow  injustice  or 
discourtesy  to  Japanese  or  Chinese  merchants,  teachers,  stu- 
dents, and  others  of  good  class  who  may  seek  to  visit  our  ter- 
ritory"; and  further  requested  "that  our  dealings  with  the 
Orient  be  inspired  by  due  regard  for  the  welfare  of  those  peo- 
ples as  well  as  for  the  safety  of  our  own  land."  To  these  reso- 
lutions the  Washington  government  sent  a  formal  but  respect- 
ful reply,  announcing  that  the  action  of  the  Conference  had 
been  "carefully  noted." 

The  Jamestown  Tercentenary  Exposition  being  scheduled  to 
open  in  1907,  and  the  enterprise  having  come  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  general  government,  the  President  and  Congress 
were  formally  asked  to  secure  the  closing  of  its  gate  on  the 
Sabbath,  which  end  was  eventually  secured.  By  formal  action 
the  Conference  joined  the  interchurch  movement  for  securing 
better  and  more  Scriptural  national  laws  on  the  subject  of 
divorce.  A  committee  was  also  appointed  to  consider  resolu- 
tions of  protest  against  the  seating  in  the  United  States  Senate 
of  Reed  Smoot,  one  of  the  apostles  of  the  Mormon  Church,  and 
a  legally  proven  polygamist. 

Less  than  one  month  before  the  meeting  of  the  Conference — 
that  is,  on  April  16,  1906 — San  Francisco  and  an  extended  sec- 
tion of  the  adjacent  coast  were  visited  by  a  destructive  earth- 
quake, and  in  consequence  much  suffering  had  come  upon  the 
people.  Resolutions  of  sympathy  and  measures  for  immediate 
financial  relief  were  passed  at  an  early  sitting  of  the  body. 

From  the  time  of  its  founding  in  1873  to  the  end  of  the 


224  History  of  Methodism. 


century,  a  period  of  more  than  twenty-five  years,  there  was 
never  a  question  as  to  the  Church's  ownership  of,  and  its  right 
of  control  over,  Vanderbilt  University;  but  during  the  first 
quadrennium  of  the  new  century  it  began  to  be  insinuated,  in 
both  a  semipublic  and  a  public  way,  that  the  Church  was  not 
the  real  owner  of  the  property  and  that  the  bishops,  who  were 
the  Church's  legal  representatives,  had  no  authority  over  the 
institution  except  through  the  sufferance  and  patronage  of  the 
Board  of  Trust.  At  first  these  insinuations  were  not  treated 
seriously,  but  they  grew  in  volume  and  seemed  to  emanate 
from  cryptic  and  inspired  sources.  Finally,  in  1005  an  effort 
was  made  by  the  majority  of  the  Board  of  Trust  to  procure  a 
new  charter  and  at  the  same  time  to  overthrow  the  charter 
rights  of  the  bishops  as  the  Church's  containers  of  special 
administrative  authority  over  the  institution.  It  then  began  to 
be  suspected  that  a  deeply  laid  scheme  was  brewing  to  vitiate 
altogether  the  Church's  claim  and  dispossess  it  of  its  property. 
In  response,  therefore,  to  numerous  memorial's  from  Annual 
Conferences  and  in  answer  to  a  general  demand,  the  General 
Conference  of  1006  constituted  a  commission  of  five  laymen  to 
inquire  into  and  determine  the  relation  of  the  University  to 
the  Church ;  to  perfect  the  title  to  the  same,  if  not  then  found 
perfect;  and  to  define  the  charter  rights  of  the  bishops  as 
the  Church's  representatives.  The  following-named  gentlemen 
were  appointed  to  constitute  this  commission — viz.:  Judge  Ed- 
ward O'Rear,  of  Kentucky;  Judge  John  Richard,  of  Missouri; 
Judge  Edward  KewTman,  of  Virginia;  Judge  Joseph  McOol- 
lough,  of  South  Carolina;  and  Hon.  Creed  F.  Bates,  of  Tennes- 
see. The  commission  was  urged  to  proceed  in  the  matter  as 
promptly  as  possible  and  was  directed  to  make  simultaneous 
report  of  its  findings  to  the  College  of  Bishops  and  to  the 
Board  of  Trust  of  the  university.  The  developments  in  this 
now  celebrated  case  during  the  eight  years  following  this  ac- 
tion make  a  chapter  sad  and  surprising,  which  has  meant  em- 
barrassment and  discomfiture  to  not  a  few  in  Israel,  and  is 
one  which  must  remain  amongst  the  most  painful  memories 
laid  up  for  the  coming  generations  of  Methodists.  But  an  ac- 
count of  the  case  belongs  to  a  future  chapter,  where  it  will  be 


Missions — Journalism — League  Assemblies,  Etc,  225 


found  treated  without  abatement  of  any  detail  necessary  to  an 
understanding  of  it. 

The  inception  of  a  movement  looking  toward  the  unification 
of  all  the  missionary  interests  of  the  Connection,  including  the 
Church  Extension  Board,  was  had  in  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Missions.  A  commission  of  thirteen  members  was 
appointed  "to  study  the  question  during  the  next  four  years 
and  report  to  the  General  Conference  of  1910  a  plan  of  co- 
operation or  union."  The  commission  reported  such  a  plan  in 
1910,  and  the  General  Conference  adopted  it.  A  full  account 
of  the  constitution  and  administrative  functions  of  the  new 
organization  will  be  found  in  a  general  sketch  of  the  Mission 
Board  in  Chapter  XV.  of  this  volume. 

For  years  the  conviction  has  been  strong  that  a  consolida- 
tion of  the  weekly  newspapers  of  the  Connection  should  be 
brought  about,  in  order  to  secure  a  more  representative  and 
better-circulated  type  of  periodical  literature.  On  every  side 
praise  is  given  the  journalistic  promoters  and  writers  of  our 
weekly  press  for  faithful  and  heroic  service;  but  all  Meth- 
odists, including  the  promoters  and  writers  themselves,  have 
acknowledged  higher  ideals  and  felt  the  need  of  better  results 
than  those  hitherto  realized  in  our  journalism.  Consolidation, 
it  has  been  believed,  is  the  process  by  which  this  end  is  to  be 
reached.  So  thought  a  majority  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1906.  The  bishops  recommended  consideration  of  the  plan, 
and  the  Conference  discussed  it  and  made  recommendations 
accordingly.  The  situation  remains  unchanged,  however,  and 
presents  a  problem  well  worthy  the  thought  of  layman  and 
minister. 

Mere  incidents  in  themselves,  but  at  the  same  time  sug- 
gestive of  longitudinal  movement,  were  the  following  sepa- 
rate items  of  legislation — viz. :  The  empowerment  of  Epworth 
League  Conferences  to  acquire  and  hold  property  for  assembly 
and  other  religious  and  educational  uses;  the  establishment 
of  missionary  training  schools ;  the  empowering  of  unordained 
pastors  to  perform  the  rites  of  matrimony  and  to  administer 
the  ordinance  of  baptism;  the  changing  of  the  title  "Book 
Agent"  to  that  of  "Publishing  Agent";  the  recommendation  of 
a  constitutional  alteration  in  the  Twenty-Third  Article  of  Re- 
15 


220 


History  of  Methodism. 


ligion,  uOi  the  duty  of  Christian  men  to  the  civil  authority." 
so  as  to  make  it  applicable  to  the  citizens  of  all  countries 
where  the  Church  may  be  established.  This  reference  to  an 
Article  of  the  Confession  naturally  suggests  an  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Conference  in  connection  with  what  was. 
by  all  consent,  the  most  interesting,  but  at  last  the  most  abor- 
tive, business  upon  which  it  entered — namely,  the  attempted 
restatement  of  the  Church's  creed,  or  the  rewriting  of  the  Ar- 
ticles of  Religion. 

Prom  the  beginning  Methodism  has  been  more  a  religion  of 
experience  than  of  dogma  and  has  looked  to  the  naked  Scrip- 
tures for  authority  and  instruction  rather  than  to  creedal 
glosses  and  tenets  derived  from  antiquity.  Nevertheless, 
American  Methodism  received  and  has  cherished  a  rescension 
of  the  creed  of  early  English  Protestantism,  but  more  as  a  sign 
of  its  Anglican  descent  than  as  a  symbolic  necessity.  Meth- 
odism in  the  Motherland  has  no  confession,  nor  any  symbol, 
save  that  found  in  the  Wesley  an  homilies  and  notes.  The 
Bible  is  its  sufficient  statement.  The  spirit  of  the  Methodism 
of  America  is  in  this  not  different  from  that  of  England;  only 
the  "Articles"  are  a  birthright  and  have  both  a  theological 
and  a  historical  value.  Materially  to  alter  their  forms  or 
terms  would  be  to  destroy  their  value,  however  great  an  im- 
provement the  alteration  might  appear  to  be.  The  modern 
Church  does  not  need  a  written  creed;  but  this  symbol,  reach- 
ing back  through  the  Anglican  and  the  Augsburg  statements 
and  by  unquestionable  tokens  to  the  Nicene  formula,  has  be- 
come to  the  Church  as  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  "Gloria 
Patri." 

When,  therefore,  all  unannounced  and  unheralded,  a  propo- 
sition to  write  a  new  doctrinal  statement  for  the  Church  was 
precipitated  on  the  General  Conference  of  1006,  surprise  and 
sensation  overflowed  the  assembly;  and  later,  when  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  novel  adventure  had  carried  by  a  decisive  ma- 
jority, the  feeling  for  a  time  bordered  on  consternation.  The 
principal  section  of  the  resolution  was  as  follows : 

Believing  that  the  different  branches  of  world-wide  Methodism  that 
are  represented  in  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  can  and 
should  unite  in  the  preparation  of  such  a  statement  of  our  common 


New  Statement  of  Faith — Fraternal  Visitors.  l'l'7 


faith  as  is  needed,  and  believing  that  this  General  Conference  should 
take  such  steps  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  in  the  early  future  the 
cooperation  of  other  representative  Methodist  Churches  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  new  statement  of  our  faith,  we  therefore  offer  the  following 
resolution: 

Resolved,  That  the  College  of  Bishops  be  requested  to  appoint  a 
commission  of  five  members,  one  of  whom  shall  be  a  bishop,  who  shall 
be  members  of  the  next  Ecumenical  Conference;  this  commission  to 
invite  other  branches  of  Methodism  to  unite  with  us  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  our  doctrinal  system  as  it  is  called  for  in  our  day,  and  this 
commission  shall  represent  our  Church  in  the  preparation  of  the  same. 

It  was  soon  seen  that  the  movement  had  been  stillborn.  Tn 
the  other  Methodist  Connections  in  America  but  a  doubtful  iu- 
terest  was  expressed  in  it,  while  in  England  it  met  with  only 
indifference  and  disparagement.  Efforts  were  made  to  put  it 
before  representative  assemblies,  but  these  were  parried;  and 
in  the  end  the  matter  went  by  default,  not  a  single  committee 
in  any  Methodist  body  giving  it  consideration.  Nevertheless, 
the  affair  had  its  instructive  and  stimulating  side  and  enlisted 
the  interest  and  advocacy  of  not  a  few  worthy  and  able  men. 

The  fraternal  sessions  of  the  Conference  of  1006  were  of 
more  than  usual  interest.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America  was  represented  by  the  Rev.  W. 
S.  Matthew,  D.D.,  and  the  Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States ;  the  English  Wesleyan  Church 
was  represented  by  the  Rev.  Dinsdale  T.  Young,  who  left  a 
deep  impression  upon  the  body;  while  Rev.  J.  W.  Sparling, 
D.D.,  brought  greetings  from  the  Church  of  Canada.  Besides 
these  distinguished  messengers,  there  were  representatives  from 
the  colored  Churches  and  messages  from  a  number  of  sister 
Christian  bodies,  especially  the  Baptist  General  Convention 
and  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Vice  President  Fairbanks  closed  his  address  with  this  perora- 
tion, which  was  worthy  the  occasion  and  the  messenger: 

My  brethren,  our  lines  have  fallen  in  pleasant  places.  We  live  in 
a  fortunate  hour  in  the  history  of  the  world.  A  great  responsibility 
rests  upon  us,  and  that  is  to  live  well  our  day  and  serve  well  our 
generation.  We  are,  in  the  fullest  and  best  sense,  trustees  of  a  mighty 
trust.  Fidelity  to  it  is  the  watchword.  We  are  the  adherents  of  a 
Church  of  great  potency.  We  give  to  it  our  loyal  allegiance;  for  we 
have  faith  in  it,  and  we  love  it.    We  should  serve  it  and  transmit  it 


228 


History  of  Methodism. 


to  those  who  shall  follow  us  with  power  increased  and  honor  un- 
dimmed.  Methodism  is  progressive.  It  moves  forward  majestically, 
meeting  new  conditions  and  the  advancing  needs  of  the  world;  meet- 
ing in  full  measure  the  increasing  duties  which  God  Almighty  lays 
upon  it.  No  finite  intelligence  can  set  the  boundaries  of  its  future 
influence.  We  look  back  upon  what  it  has  done  with  profound  satis- 
faction and  forward  with  the  utmost  confidence.  We  believe  that,  in- 
spired by  all  the  sacred  memories  of  the  past,  the  mighty  army  of 
Methodism  will  go  forward,  doing  its  full  share  in  lifting  humanity  to 
a  still  higher  and  holier  life. 

Dr.  Young,  the  English  delegate,  thrilled  the  Conference  with 
these  remarks,  made  at  the  very  opening  of  his  address : 

Mr.  Chairman,  since  your  last  General  Conference  we  have  had,  as 
English  Methodists  and  as  American  Methodists,  sorrow  and  rejoicing 
together.  You  have  had  your  shadows.  You  have  had  your  great  be- 
reavements. We  have  known  them,  and  we  have  mourned  with  you. 
The  great,  stalwart,  picturesque,  romantic,  splendid  figure,  Bishop 
Keener,  was  greatly  honored  in  English  Methodism,  and  you  have  our 
affectionate  condolence  in  the  great  impoverishment  that  has  come 
upon  you  in  the  withdrawal  of  so  magnificent  a  man.  .  .  .  Who  can 
say  how  many  of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  throng  this 
place  to-night?  They  are  gone,  and  yet  they  are  with  us.  We  are 
compassed  about  with  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses. 

The  episcopacy  was  strengthened  at  this  session  by  the  elec- 
tion of  three  additional  bishops — namely,  John  James  Tigert. 
Seth  Ward,  and  James  Atkins.  Of  these,  the  two  first-named, 
each  being  under  fifty  years  of  age,  died  during  the  quadren- 
nium  which  followed  their  election. 

Bishop  Tigert  was  one  of  the  truly  great  men  of  Methodism. 
Of  robust  strength,  sound  health,  and  optimistic  temperament, 
he  seemed  to  have  many  years  of  life  before  him.  ''But  in  such 
a  time  as  ye  know  not"  the  summons  comes ;  and  to  him  it  came 
unexpectedly,  suddenly,  almost  tragically.  That  providence 
which  cannot  be  understood  must  yet  be  trusted  with  an  un- 
faltering confidence. 

Bishop  Tigert  was  a  strong  writer,  with  a  logical  mind,  and 
familiar  with  the  walks  of  philosophy  and  literature.  Author 
ship  became  naturally  and  early  one  of  his  chief  concerns.  In 
the  course  of  a  busy  life  as  pastor,  college  professor,  and  editor, 
he  produced  a  number  of  books  of  unusual  value  and  excellence. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  work  of  any  Methodist  author  in  the 


Bishop  John  J.  TigeH. 


229 


South,  or  even  on  the  continent,  is  his  "Constitutional  History 
of  American  Episcopal  Methodism."  Other  titles  of  his  books 
are :  ''Theism,  a  Survey  of  the  Paths  That  Lead  to  God,"  "The 
Christianity  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles,"  "The  Making-  of 
Methodism,"  "Handbook  of  Logic,"  "The  Preacher  Himself," 
etc.  Besides  these  volumes,  he  edited  and  put  through  the 
press  a  number  of  standard  works  on  theology  and  related 
subjects  and  was  a  constant  contributor  to  the  current  dis- 
cussional  literature  of  both  this  country  and  England.  For 
twelve  years  he  filled  the  office  of  Book  Editor  and  Editor  of 
the  Methodist  Review,  It  was  in  that  position  that  he  con- 
firmed the  high  judgment  which  the  Church  and  the  Christian 
public  had  passed  upon  him  during  the  earlier  years  of  his  min- 
istry. His  capacity  for  work  was  great,  and  the  careful  and 
systematic  methods  which  he  brought  to  his  tasks  produced 
results  of  great  value  and  correctness.  As  a  preacher  Bishop 
Tigert's  rank  was  high,  but  he  was  not  in  the  technical  class 
of  orators.  His  style  was  too  severely  logical  and  his  thought 
methods  too  constantly  moved  along  the  plane  of  philosophy 
to  take  the  charm  of  rhetoric.  Moreover,  his  voice  was  lacking 
in  those  tones  and  modulations  which  make  the  musician;  but 
his  message  was  always  commanding  and  illuminating. 

Bishop  Tigert  was  born  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  Novem- 
ber 25,  1856.  Fortune  placed  him  in  a  godly  home,  and  he  grew 
up  in  the  faith.  Converted  in  early  youth,  he  also  accepted  an 
early  call  to  the  ministry.  His  academic  and  theological  educa- 
tion was  obtained  in  the  best  schools,  Vanderbilt  University 
and  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary  being  the  in- 
stitutions from  which  he  received  diplomas.  His  ministry  be- 
gan in  1877.  For  several  years  he  was  a  professor  in  Vander- 
bilt University  and  for  a  time  pastor  in  Kansas  City.  In  1802 
he  went  as  fraternal  messenger  to  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 
He  had  himself  been  a  member  of  five  General  Conferences, 
and  of  these  he  was  the  Secretary  of  four  sessions.  He  proved 
himself  at  all  times  an  able  and  skillful  debater,  as  well  as  a 
constructive  legislator.  In  1894  he  became  Book  Editor  and 
Editor  of  the  Methodist  Review,  which  post  he  filled  until  his 
election  to  the  episcopacy.   He  had  held  the  session  of  but  one 


230 


History  of  Methodism. 


Annual  Conference,  the  Illinois,  when,  proceeding  to  the  seat 
of  his  second  Conference,  the  Oklahoma,  at  Tulsa,  he  was  at- 
tacked by  a  violent  fever  and  congestion,  produced  by  the  lodg- 
ment of  a  fragment  of  bone  in  his  throat,  and  died  November 
21,  1906,  having  been  but  six  months  in  the  episcopal  office. 
Many  circumstances  of  the  life  and  death  of  Bishop  Tigert  re- 
call the  history  of  Bishop  Bascom. 

The  life  story  of  Bishop  Seth  Ward,  though  devoid  of  the 
accompaniment  of  brilliant  surprises,  is  a  chapter  of  gospel 
power  and  beauty  which  the  younger  men  of  the  Church  must 
always  read  to  inspiration  and  profit.  He  was  descended  from 
a  worthy  parentage,  though  born  amid  humble  surroundings. 
From  childhood  he  manifested  a  thirst  for  knowledge  which, 
despite  many  limitations  and  difficulties,  found  satisfaction  in 
the  mastery  of  great  books  and  in  the  training  of  his  powers 
of  independent  thinking.  From  wrork  upon  quiet  country  cir- 
cuits he  soon  succeeded  to  the  pulpits  of  the  leading  Churches 
of  his  native  State,  and  was  by  his  brethren  intrusted  with  a 
leadership  of  responsibility  which  put  him  at  once  into  the 
most  important  relations  of  the  Connection.  He  early  evinced 
an  interest  in,  and  an  insight  into,  the  cause  of  missions  which 
marked  him  as  a  leader  in  that  important  work.  Being  chosen 
as  Assistant  Missionary  Secretary  in  1002,  he  soon  impressed 
the  Connection  not  only  with  his  proficiency  in  the  work  of  that 
department,  but  also  with  aptitudes  for  the  highest  office  of 
administration  in  the  Church.  It  was  not  a  matter  of  surprise, 
therefore,  that  he  was  selected  for  the  episcopacy  in  1006.  At 
their  meeting  in  1009  his  colleagues  laid  upon  him  the  duty  of 
visiting  the  mission  stations  in  Eastern  Asia,  and  it  was  while 
upon  this  journey  that  he  died,  in  Kobe,  Japan,  September  20, 
1909.  Bishop  Ward  was  a  man  of  impressive  modesty,  very 
faithful  in  his  friend  ships,  very  delicate  in  his  courtesies,  of 
deep  religious  experience,  and  profoundly  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  connectional  elections  for  the  quadrennium  of  1906-10 
were  as  follows — viz.:  Publishing  Agents,  D.  M.  Smith  and 
A.  J.  Lamar;  Book  Editor  and  Editor  of  the  Quarterly  Re- 
view, Gross  Alexander;  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate, 
George  B.  Winton  ;  Sunday  School  Editor.  Edwin  B.  Chappell; 


Elections — Berryman — Bishops  Smith  and  (Jranbery.  2.°>1 


Editor  Epworth  Era,  Horace  M.  Du  Bose;  Missionary  Secre- 
tary, Walter  R.  Lambuth ;  Secretary  Board  of  Education,  John 
D.  Hammond;  Secretary  Board  of  Church  Extension,  W.  F. 
McMurry. 

In  his  election  to  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension,  Dr.  McMurry  became  the  successor  of  Dr.  Peter  H. 
Whisner,  whose  death  occurred  in  Baltimore  April  21,  190G, 
less  than  a  month  before  the  session  of  the  General  Conference. 
Dr.  Whisner  had  been  thirty-five  years  a  member  of  the  Balti- 
more Conference  when,  in  1898,  he  was  elected  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Church  Extension.  His  administration  of  the  office 
for  eight  consecutive  years  was  highly  satisfactory.  In  the 
ministry  he  was  found  faithful,  a  man  of  God  and  a  loyal  son 
of  the  Church.  The  honors  which  came  to  him  were  unsought, 
but  were  worthily  borne. 

During  the  earlier  days  of  the  session  of  1906  the  General 
Conference  sent  a  message  of  greeting  to  the  Rev.  Jerome  C. 
Berryman,  the  patriarch  of  the  Church  and  the  sole  surviving 
member  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844.  A  few  days  later, 
on  May  8,  this  venerable  man  passed  away  to  join  the  assembly 
of  his  associates  on  high. 

The  names  of  Bishop  John  C.  Granbery  and  Bishop  A.  Coke 
Smith  had  been  mentioned  with  tender  solicitude  by  their  col- 
leagues, and  the  Conference  had  formally  released  each  of  them 
from  the  responsibilities  of  his  office.  Within  less  than  a  year 
of  the  adjournment  their  names  were  written  on  the  roll  of  the 
Church  triumphant. 

Alexander  Coke  Smith  was  born  in  a  parsonage  and  so  grew 
up  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  itinerancy.  Religious  from-  boy- 
hood, he  early  dedicated  himself  to  the  ministry,  following  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  father.  Graduating  from  Wofford  College 
in  1872,  he  joined  the  South  Carolina  Conference  in  the  same 
year  and  at  once  entered  upon  the  work  of  the  pastorate. 
After  fourteen  years  of  service  as  a  pastor,  he  became  a  pro- 
fessor in  Wofford  College.  In  1890  he  was  elected  Associate 
Missionary  Secretary,  but  within  a  few  months  resigned  that 
post  to  accept  the  chair  of  Practical  Theology  in  Vanderbilt 
University.  Returning  to  the  pastorate  in  1892,  he  filled  sev- 
eral important  stations  in  the  Virginia  Conference  before  his 


232 


History  of  Methodism. 


election  to  the  episcopacy,  in  1902.  Bishop  Smith  was  endowed 
with  large  mental  powers,  which  had  been  cultivated  and  ef- 
fectively employed  in  working  out  the  leads  of  great  theological 
and  philosophical  subjects.  He  was  an  uncommonly  engaging 
and  instructive  preacher,  often  eloquent,  never  dull.  Witty 
and  brilliant  in  conversation,  he  recalled  the  character  of  a 
certain  distinguished  prebend  of  St.  Paul's  who  bore  the  same 
name.  Few  preachers  of  his  day  were  so  much  sought  after 
or  preached  to  larger  and  more  delighted  and  better-instructed 
audiences.  His  active  service  in  the  episcopacy  was  brief,  his 
health  having  failed  within  two  or  three  years  after  his  con- 
secration.  He  died  December  27,  1906. 

John  Cowper  Granbery,  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1882, 
was  a  saintly  and  scholarly  man,  worthy  of  the  honors  con- 
ferred upon  him  and  meriting  the  tribute  paid  to  his  memory. 
After  graduating  with  distinction  from  Randolph-Macon  Col- 
lege, he  was  in  1848  admitted  into  the  traveling  connection  in 
the  Virginia  Conference.  In  1858  he  was  pastor  in  Washington 
City  and  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  War  between  the  States  was 
chaplain  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  Accepting  a  chaplaincy 
in  the  Confederate  army,  he  was  wounded  and  captured  and 
later  imprisoned  at  Fort  Warren,  Boston,  Mass.,  but  was  soon 
exchanged.  In  1875  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Homiletics 
in  Vanderbilt  University  and  was  in  that  post  when  elected 
to  the  episcopacy.  During  his  twenty  years  of  active  service 
as  bishop  he  grew  steadily  in  the  affections  of  preachers  and 
laymen,  and  his  life  is  remembered  as  a  constant  and  un- 
changing benediction  to  the  Church.   He  died  April  1,  1907. 

Along  with  these  ranking  commanders  of  the  host,  John  C. 
Simmons,  the  historian  of  Pacific  Methodism  and  a  true  soldier 
of  Jesus  Christ,  caught  the  step  of  the  immortals.  After  fifty- 
seven  years  as  an  itinerant,  fifty-four  of  which  were  spent  in 
California,  he  died  on  April  21,  1906.  Methodism  has  not  pro- 
duced a  more  interesting  character  nor  known  a  more  devoted 
son.  Born  in  Georgia  in  1827  and  joining  the  Conference  in 
1849,  he  was  one  of  the  first  itinerants  to  volunteer  for  servico 
in  California,  whose  shores  he  reached  in  1852  at  the  height  of 
the  gold  excitement  of  that  era.  His  earliest  work  was  amongst 
the  miners.   The  Southern  Church,  being  the  first  on  that  field, 


John  C.  Simmons — Other  Church  Historians.  233 


for  a  long  time,  and  until  the  tide  of  immigration  ceased  to 
flow  from  Missouri  and  the  South,  was  the  chief  missionary 
force  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  From  the  mines  to  the  growing 
young  cities  of  the  land  the  early  preachers  were  called,  and 
Simmons  amongst  the  foremost.  He  became  known  everywhere 
and  was  universally  loved.  His  golden  heart  of  faith  and  zeal 
matched  the  Golden  Land  he  learned  to  call  his  own.  His 
"History  of  Southern  Methodism  on  the  Pacific  Coast"  will 
cause  his  name  to  be  long  remembered ;  but  his  life,  which  was 
for  fifty  years  a  part  of  California,  cannot  quite  go  away  from 
the  hills  and  valleys  which  it  blessed. 

Three  other  historians  of  the  Church  were  canonized  coe- 
taneously  with  the  memorial  of  the  heroic  Simmons.  These 
were:  Anson  West,  D.D.,  author  of  the  "History  of  Alabama 
Methodism";  A.  M.  Chreitzberg,  author  of  "Early  Methodism 
in  the  Carolinas" ;  and  James  Edward  Armstrong,  D.D.,  author 
of  the  "History  of  the  Old  Baltimore  Conference." 

Anson  West  was  a  man  of  iron.  Formed  and  fashioned  in 
the  fires  of  early  necessity  and  test,  his  mind  matured  inflexible 
convictions,  and  his  soul  settled  into  steadfastness  of  faith 
and  loyalty.  Born  in  North  Carolina  in  1832,  he  was  early 
brought  by  his  family  to  the  Southwest,  where  few  educational 
advantages  could  be  provided  him;  but  he  quickly  found  the 
golden  key  to  knowledge  in  the  reading  of  books,  and  so  made 
his  way  to  an  estate  of  general  and  effective  information.  Be- 
sides his  History,  he  wrote  a  theological  work,  "The  Old  and 
New  Man,"  which  exhibited  fruits  of  respectable  scholarship 
as  well  as  a  spirit  of  soundness  and  zeal  for  the  truth.  He  was 
an  acknowledged  leader  in  the  Annual  and  General  Conferences 
and  a  champion  of  Christian  education.  Birmingham  College 
owes  its  existence  to  his  untiring  zeal. 

Abel  McKee  Chreitzberg,  D.D.,  was  born  in  1820  and  at  his 
death  lacked  but  a  few  weeks  of  being  eighty-eight  years  of 
age.  By  acclaim  of  his  brethren,  he  was  "the  Nestor  of  the 
South  Carolina  Conference  and  the  'Old  Man  Eloquent.' "  He 
was  a  man  of  rare  education,  apostolic  faith,  and  a  preacher 
preeminently.  His  ministry  covered  a  period  of  nearly  seventy 
years,  spent  wholly  in  the  pastorate. 

The  history  of  the  "Old  Baltimore"  Conference  describes  the 


234 


History  of  Methodism. 


top  sheaf  in  the  shock  of  American  Methodist  ingatherings. 
This  sheaf  is  the  harvest  from  the  seed  planted  by  Robert 
Strawbridge,  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  proclaim  his  mes- 
sage in  the  New  World  and  the  organizer  of  the  first  Methodist 
Society  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Baltimore  was  also  the 
pivot  of  the  restless  episcopate  of  Francis  Asbury.  To  have 
the  honor  of  writing  its  story  was  no  small  mark  of  the  favor 
of  Providence.  That  honor  fell  to  James  E.  Armstrong,  who 
was  born  in  Alexandria,  Ya.,  October  L5,  1830,  and  died  April 
6,  1908.  With  the  birthright  of  a  gentleman  and  the  rich  en- 
duements  of  religion.  Dr.  Armstrong  impressed  his  generation 
in  no  ordinary  way.  For  twenty  years  he  was  the  Secretary  of 
his  Conference  and  for  thirty  years  before  was  the  assistant  of 
Dr.  John  S.  Martin.  Their  two  names  mingle,  like  the  glow  of 
binary  stars,  in  the  memorials  of  the  "Old  Baltimore." 

Dr.  Young  J.  Allen,  the  veteran  missionary,  returned  to 
China  from  the  session  of  the  General  Conference,  only  to  yield 
up  his  life  in  the  land  to  which  he  had  given  forty-seven  years 
of  laborious  and  loving  service.  Born  in  Georgia  in  1830,  lie 
went  with  the  wife  of  his  youth  as  a  missionary  to  China,  ar- 
riving in  Shanghai  in  1860.  He  readily  acquired  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  language  and  began  to  preach.  When  he  went 
to  China  there  were  no  newspapers  there.  His  quick  percep- 
tion suggested  the  newspaper  as  a  means  of  reaching  the  native 
mind.  Accordingly,  he  began  the  publication  of  the  first  news- 
paper ever  printed  in  the  Chinese  language,  the  Wan  Kuoh 
Rung  Pao  (Review  of  the  Times).  He  also  began  to  priut  books. 
This  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Chinese  government,  and 
during  the  American  War,  1861-G5,  he  was  employed  by  the 
imperial  authorities  to  translate  books  and  teach  in  the  gov- 
ernment schools.  This  gave  him  an  influence  in  the  empire 
which  grewr  steadily  during  his  lifetime.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
foreigner,  except  "Chinese"  Gordon,  ever  had  more  influence 
over  the  Chinese  mind.  Dr.  Allen  was  instrumental  in  estab- 
lishing the  Anglo-Chinese  College  at  Shanghai  and  also  aided 
in  founding  the  Soochow7  University.  His  name  is  written  high 
in  the  list  of  "master  missionaries." 

To  think  of  a  General  Conference  in  the  South  between  the 
years  1870  and  100G,  a  period  of  more  than  a  third  of  a  cen- 


Paul  Whitehead — John  J.  Lafferty. 


235 


tury,  is  to  associate  with  its  proceedings  the  name  of  P;nil 
Whitehead,  of  Virginia,  the  peerless  debater  and  unmatched 
parliamentarian  and  Church  lawyer.  Dr.  Whitehead  was  born 
in  1830  and  was  nearing  the  close  of  his  seventy-seventh  year 
when  his  death  occurred,  April  3,  1907.  For  fifty  years  he 
served  in  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Virginia  Conference, 
which  is  believed  to  be  the  longest  similar  record  in  the  history 
of  Methodism,  saving  that  of  Dr.  Armstrong,  already  referred 
to.  Of  scholarly  habits,  very  gentle  and  courteous,  and  devout 
in  spirit,  Paul  Whitehead  was  a  prince  of  the  household  of 
faith.  After  the  gospel,  his  passion  was  botany,  and  his  love 
of  nature  gave  a  fragrance  to  his  learning.  More  than  any  of 
his  compeers,  he  shaped  the  Church's  legislation.  On  every 
hand  his  mastery  in  Church  law  was  admitted. 

In  sundry  connections  this  history  has  appraised  the  sig- 
nificance and  influence  of  Methodist  journalism.  The  pulpit 
and  pastorate  have  brought  into  prominence  many  characters 
of  native  strength  and  have  afforded  opportunities  to  many 
men  of  classic  and  consecrated  culture;  but  the  press  of  the 
Church  has  afforded  to  a  quite  limited  number  of  men  ex- 
ceptional opportunities  for  the  display  of  both  native  talent 
and  acquired  ability.  John  J.  Lafferty,  for  more  than  forty 
years  connected  with  the  editorship  of  the  Richmond  Christian 
Advocate,  was,  with  James  M.  Buckley,  the  most  brilliant, 
original,  and  forceful  -  editor  of  American  Methodism,  and 
amongst  those  longest  in  service.  Wit,  humor,  and  not  seldom 
something  akin  to  satire  and  invective  mingled  in  his  phrasings 
with  pathos,  classic  elegance,  and  the  drive  of  mighty  thought. 
Sometimes  he  blew  the  reeds  of  Pan ;  sometimes  he  clutched  the 
haft  of  the  hammer  of  Thor;  sometimes  his  leaders  were  devout 
meditations,  missals,  and  canticles;  again,  they  were  philippics 
against  real  or  fancied  abusers  of  clerical  power  and  privilege 
or  iconoclastic  rushes  on  customs  too  confidently  indulged. 
Sometimes  his  paragraphs  were  honeyed  courtesies;  sometimes 
they  were  curt  thrusts  at  a  derelict  or  an  opponent ;  but  always 
they  were  brilliant,  engaging,  and  readable.  He  was  "the 
wizard  of  the  inkhorn,"  preeminent  in  his  guild.  Had  he  es- 
sayed literature  in  some  severer  fashion,  he  no  doubt  would 
have  immortalized  his  genius.   As  it  was,  he  ran  his  race  with 


236 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  handicap  which  denominational  journalism  imposes,  and 
also  employed  methods  which,  though  not  ethically  incorrect, 
belong  to  the  field  of  secular  letters  rather  than  to  the  policies 
of  Church  journalism.  The  sincerity  of  his  life  and  the  gen- 
uineness of  his  faith  were  not  questioned.  He  passed  away 
with  the  love  and  admiration  of  many,  but  by  some  was  judged 
to  the  last. 

John  B.  A.  Ahrens,  who  was  born  in  Rinehausen,  Germany, 
in  1836  and  died  in  New  Orleans  April  19,  1906,  was  a  charter 
member  of  the  German  Conference  and  the  first  editor  of  its 
literature,  having  established  and  edited  its  early  journals,  the 
Familienfreund  and  the  Kinder  j 're  and.  Dr.  Ahrens  was  the 
foremost  preacher  of  his  race  in  the  American  world,  possessing 
many  gifts,  much  culture,  and  being  profoundly  religious.  He 
spoke  fluently  and  with  equal  effect  in  both  German  and  Eng- 
lish. Besides  his  editorial  writings,  he  made  translations  into 
and  from  the  German,  composed  hymns,  and  contributed  let- 
ters and  monographs  to  a  number  of  journals.  He  was  the 
author  of  a  "History  of  Mexico,"  written  in  German. 

A  gifted  editorial  writer  and  a  man  descended  from  a  fam- 
ily of  Methodist  patricians  was  Thomas  Roberts  Pierce,  once 
editor  of  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate.  Born  in  Georgia  in 
1852,  and  entering  the  North  Georgia  Conference  in  1871,  he 
served  a  while  in  the  pastorates  of  that  State  and  then  trans- 
ferred to  the  North  Texas  Conference,  where  his  pulpit  work 
was  marked  by  force  and  effectiveness.  In  1894  he  was  made 
editor  of  the  Advocate  and  at  once  attracted  wide  attention 
by  reason  of  the  strength,  soundness,  and  literary  finish  of  his 
writings.  He  no  doubt  would  have  been  called  to  a  place  in 
connectional  journalism,  but  a  fatal  and  lingering  malady  un- 
dermined his  health  and  brought  him  to  a  premature  death  on 
September  1,  1909. 

The  successor  of  Dr.  Pierce  as  editor  of  the  Texas  Christian 
Advocate  was  Rev.  George  C.  Rankin,  D.D.,  who  was  born  in 
Tennessee  in  1819  and  died  in  Texas  in  1915.  First  a  pastor 
in  Tennessee,  then  in  Missouri,  he  was  in  1892  transferred  to 
Texas,  and  after  a  pastorate  of  eight  years  became  editor  of 
the  Conference  organ.  During  the  years  of  his  editorship  he 
acquired  a  great  personal  influence  in  the  State,  both  as  a 


Rankin — Palmore — Carter — Black. 


1M 


Church  leader  and  as  an  advocate  of  the  cause  of  prohibition 
and  law  enforcement.  Indeed,  it  was  freely  conceded  that  his 
influence  in  the  State,  both  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  religious  teach- 
er, was  second  to  that  of  no  other  man.  He  had  conquered  many 
obstacles  in  early  life  and  had  acquired  the  equipment  neces- 
sary for  the  unusual  and  successful  tasks  allotted  him.  His 
editorials  were  never  brilliant,  never  rose  to  the  higher  levels 
of  literary  style,  nor  carried  unusual  forms  of  statement,  but 
were  strong,  argumentative,  perspicuous,  and  served  the  use  for 
which  they  were  intended — to  be  read  by  the  people.  He  left 
an  indelible  impression  upon  the  religious  and  civic  life  of  his 
adopted  State. 

One  of  the  most  widely  traveled  men  of  the  century  was 
William  B.  Palmore,  who  in  1890  became  chief  owner  and 
editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  and  whose  death 
occurred  July  5,  1914.  It  is  believed  that  Dr.  Palmore  had 
visited  every  political  division  of  the  earth  and  had  traveled 
carefully  and  leisurely  through  all  Bible  lands,  as  well  as 
through  the  historic  countries  of  the  Levant  and  Orient.  His 
travels  brought  him  into  close  sympathy  with  Christian  mis- 
sions, and  as  a  result  of  that  sympathy  he  founded  two  mis- 
sion schools  which  bear  his  name,  one  in  Japan  and  one  in 
Mexico.  Under  his  direction  and  editorship,  the  Advocate  be- 
came the  most  influential  Conference  newspaper  in  the  Connec- 
tion. Dr.  Palmore  was  an  instructive  lecturer,  as  well  as  an 
earnest  and  able  preacher  of  the  Word. 

The  tripod  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate  has  been 
occupied  by4  a  succession  of  exceptionally  able  men,  four  of 
them — H.  N.  McTyeire,  J.  C.  Keener,  Linus  Parker,  and  Charles 
B.  Galloway — succeeding  to  the  episcopacy.  Other  two  of  that 
succession,  Charles  W.  Carter  and  Warren  C.  Black,  have 
finished  their  tasks  and  joined  their  predecessors  in  the  com- 
pany of  just  men  made  perfect. 

Charles  W.  Carter,  D.D.,  was  a  native  of  Louisiana,  born  in 
1833.  A  vigorous  thinker,  a  preacher  of  the  type  of  Phillips 
Brooks,  and  a  writer  of  pure  and  undefiled  English,  he  lived 
a  life  of  rounded  usefulness  and  self-devotion.  Besides  his 
pastoral  and  editorial  work,  he  was  a  force  in  the  wider  life 
of  the  Connection,  being  often  a  member  of  the  General  Con- 


238 


History  of  Methodism. 


ference,  where  his  talents  were  prized  and  used  by  his  co- 
delegates.   His  death  occurred  December  20,  1912. 

The  successor  of  Dr.  Carter  as  editor  of  the  New  Orleans 
Christian  Advocate,  Rev.  Warren  C.  Black,  D.D.,  was  born  in 
Mississippi  May  24,  1843.  As  a  preacher,  writer,  and  lecturer. 
Dr.  Black  successfully  challenged  his  generation.  Like  many 
another  embryo  itinerant,  in  preparing  himself  for  his  calling 
he  met  difficulties  hard  to  overcome;  but  he  overcame  them, 
and  that  with  a  balance  in  his  favor.  Next  to  Bishop  Gallo- 
way, he  was  credited  with  having  contributed  more  to  the  suc- 
cess of  prohibition  in  Mississippi  than  any  other  man.  He  was 
succeeded  in  the  editorship  by  the  present  able  incumbent,  R. 
A.  Meek,  D.D.,  also  a  native  of  the  State  which  gave  Galloway 
and  Black  to  the  Church. 

Of  great  pastors  which  the  Methodism  of  the  South  has 
known,  no  name  is  written  higher  in  the  record  than  that  of 
John  Mathews,  D.D.,  who  died  in  a  rich,  ripe  old  age  on  Sep- 
tember 1,  1907.  The  greatest  pulpits  of  the  Connection  knew 
his  ministry.  In  Mobile,  in  New  Orleans,  in  Kansas  City,  in 
St.  Louis,  and  in  Nashville,  he  filled  pastorates,  always  serving 
the  legal  limit.  A  true  gospel  preacher,  persuasive,  eloquent, 
evangelical,  as  also  evangelistic,  he  brought  men  and  women 
into  the  kingdom  by  scores  and  hundreds.  Every  week  wit- 
nessed a  revival  about  the  chancel  of  his  church  and  in  the 
prayer  meeting.  Nor  was  he  less  a  pastor  for  being  so  diligent 
a  preacher.  No  man  ever  excelled  him  as  a  shepherd  of  souls; 
few  have  equaled  him.  Who  can  imagine  the  fullness  of  rest 
which  in  Paradise  comes  to  a  soul  like  this! 

During  the  quadrennium  between  1906  and  1910  the  Church 
suffered  the  loss  through  death  of  six  of  its  General  Superin- 
tendents— namely,  Bishops  Granbery,  Tigert,  Smith,  Duncan, 
Galloway,  and  Ward. 

Bishop  William  Wallace  Duncan,  the  eighteenth  General  Su- 
perintendent of  the  Church,  was  born  in  1839  and  entered  the 
ministry  in  1858.  He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  188G 
and  died  March  2,  1908.  Like  his  elder  brother.  Dr.  James  A. 
Duncan,  he  grew  up  in  a  college  and,  it  might  well  be  said,  was 
a  scholar  by  birth;  nor  was  he  less  a  true  and  reverent  Chris- 
tian.   Much  of  his  ministry  was  given  to  the  education  of  the 


Bishop  William  Wallace  Duncan.  *2:v.) 


youth  of  Methodism.  The  service  which  he  rendered  the  Church 
as  an  executive  officer  and  as  an  adviser  in  its  councils  cannot 
well  be  estimated.  "His  ideal  was  high,  and  nothing  ever 
caused  him  to  lower  his  standards."  Oftentimes  plain-spoken, 
sometimes  severe,  even  stern,  there  was  yet  a  kindly,  sunny 
background  to  his  manner  which  always  broke  through  clouds 
and  relieved  all  situations  for  which  he  felt  a  real  responsi- 
bility. No  kindlier  gentleman,  no  purer  Christian  has  served 
the  Church  and  the  social  life  of  Methodism  in  our  day. 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 


Death  of  Bishop  Galloway — Sam  P.  Jones — William  E.  Munsey — Jacob 
Ditzler — Other  Evangelists — Centenary  of  the  Constitution — General 
Conference,  North — The  Church  and  Prohibition — Deaths — Many 
Tongues — Education — Labor — Mission  Fields — Methodist  Protestants 
and  Union — The  New  Statement  of  Faith — Memorial  Day — President 
Roosevelt  —  Elections  —  Fraternal  Address  —  Canadian  Methodism  — 
British  Wesleyanism — English  Leaders — Irish  Methodism — The  Aus- 
tralasian Connection— 1906-1909  (Concluded). 


N  the  house  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South  the  golden  bowl 


1  was  broken  and  the  silver  cord  was  loosed  on  that  morning 
in  May,  in  the  year  1909,  on  which  announcement  was  made  of 
the  death  of  Charles  B.  Galloway,  the  youngest  man  ever  elect- 
ed to  the  Methodist  episcopacy,  and  dying  in  his  fifty-ninth 
year.  Not  since  the  death  of  McTyeire  or  Soule  had  the  Church 
felt  so  deep  and  so  general  a  sorrow. 

Charles  Betts  Galloway  was  born  in  Kosciusko,  Miss.,  Sep- 
tember 1,  1849.  Sometime  in  the  summer  of  1868  he  was  li- 
censed to  preach  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  of  the  Canton 
charge.  Even  in  his  college  days  Bishop  Galloway  gave  prom- 
ise of  remarkable  powers  as  an  orator,  and  his  brilliant  and 
useful  career  in  the  pulpit  wTas  foreshadowed.  One  of  the  pro- 
fessors in  the  University  of  Mississippi,  from  which  institu- 
tion the  Bishop  graduated,  was  the  late  Associate  Justice  La- 
mar, of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  When  young  Gal- 
loway was  leaving  his  Alma  Mater,  the  great  jurist  said  :  "Char- 
lie, others,  as  well  as  myself,  are  glad  to  learn  that  you  are  to 
enter  the  ministry.  Some  of  us  would  like  to  go  to  Congress 
from  this  district."  The  transcendent  powers  of  the  Mississippi 
youth,  as  afterwards  displayed  before  great  audiences  in  both 
the  Old  and  the  New  World,  showed  that  his  preceptor  had  not 
overestimated  the  possibilities  of  his  future. 

In  personal  appearance  Bishop  Galloway  was  distinguished 
and  commanding.  Tall  and  admirably  proportioned,  his  body 
approached  the  sculptor's  ideal  of  completeness.  His  features 
were  fascinating,  but  classically  masculine.  A  contagious  fire 
flashed  from  his  eyes,  and  an  oracular  light  kindled  about  his 


(240) 


Character  of  Bishop  Galloway. 


241 


brow.  Firmness  and  tenderness  clasped  hands  at  the  portal  of 
his  lips.  His  voice  matched  well  his  frame  and  eye  and,  though 
not  of  unusual  compass,  both  its  undertones  and  its  full  notes 
were  extraordinarily  musical  and  persuasive.  In  his  intona- 
tions he  could  simulate  the  sound  of  thunders  and  counterfeit 
the  rhythm  of  low  winds  and  rustling  corn  blades.  The  modu- 
lations of  his  voice  were  particularly  adapted  to  the  expression 
of  those  qualities  of  truth  and  sympathy  in  the  gospel  which, 
being  humanlike,  need  a  perfect  human  instrument  for  their 
interpretation.  But  not  less  truly  could  those  organ  tones  ut- 
ter forth  the  highest  spiritual  teachings  of  the  evangel. 

His  manners  were  easy  and  dignified,  his  movements  and 
gestures  pleasing  and  effective,  but  unstudied  and  unconscious. 
In  any  company  he  would  have  been  marked  as  a  man  in  favor 
with  destiny  and  one  to  whom  it  was  ordained  that  deference 
should  be  paid.  With  whatever  confraternity  allied,  it  was 
inevitable  that  he  should  have  become  a  leader  and  a  teacher. 
Both  God  and  nature  set  upon  him  the  seal  of  mastery.  This 
was  the  physical  crown  of  his  personality. 

His  devotion  to  his  native  State  was  a  passion,  and  yet  he 
was  perhaps  the  most  cosmopolitan  man  to  be  found  in  the 
republic.  He  was  truly  a  son  and  a  citizen  of  the  common- 
wealth of  Mississippi.  In  youth  and  in  manhood  alike,  in  the 
village  obscurity  of  his  early  career  and  in  the  white  light  of 
his  world-wide  fame,  his  lips  overflowed  with  artless  words  of 
praise  for  the  State  of  his  T>irth.  Nor  was  his  love  for  the 
mother  greater  than  her  pride  in  her  son.  It  is  a  true  testi- 
mony, borne  by  a  member  of  this  Conference,  that  "in  all  the 
world  none  so  delighted  to  do  him  honor  as  those  among  whom 
he  made  his  home." 

His  accession  to  the  highest  official  responsibility  in  his 
Church  widened  his  sphere  of  usefulness  and  introduced  him 
to  the  fellowship  of  the  world's  leaders,  but  it  neither  de- 
stroyed nor  diminished  his  home  attachments.  From  honors 
and  preferments  in  the  world's  high  places  he  returned  to  his 
home  in  the  quiet  little  capital  of  Mississippi,  not  only  to  rest 
and  renew  his  strength,  but  to  live  himself  more  fully  and  more 
tenderly  back  into  the  memories  and  ties  of  home  and  friend- 
ship. The  very  vines  that  guarded  his  porch  and  the  oak- 
16 


242  History  of  Methodism. 

shadowed  street  that  passed  his  door  grew  dearer  to  him  every 
year,  and  the  love  of  his  own  and  the  widening  hopes  of  his 
neighbors  were  more  to  him  than  the  pledges  of  his  fame. 

Thus  were  his  highest  loyalties  those  of  the  heart.  But  his 
patriotism  and  his  sectional  sympathies  were  matched  with  a 
sense  of  judgment  and  justice.  Though  he  never  failed  to 
defend  his  people  and  his  section  against  prejudice  and  unjust 
criticism,  he  was  never  betrayed  into  special  pleadings  on  their 
behalf  nor  into  extenuation  of  those  things  in  which  they  were 
to  be  blamed.  It  is  the  opinion  of  a  distinguished  Northern 
critic  that,  though  "his  lectures  on  Justice  Lamar  and  Jeffer- 
son Davis  were  more  satisfactory  to  the  South  than  they  were 
to  the  North,  they  were  tempered  with  utterances  the  Southern 
people  needed  to  hear";  and  this  verdict  there  will  not  be 
found  so  much  as  one  to  dispute. 

Fraternal  in  matter  of  both  Church  and  State,  he  never  by 
any  speech  either  betrayed  or  compromised  his  own  people. 
While  conceding  to  the  people  of  other  sections  and  to  their 
forbears  perfect  sincerity  of  motive  and  honesty  of  judgment, 
he  insisted  that  no  less  should  be  conceded  to  his  own  and  to 
their  fathers.  Fraternity  and  cooperation  he  would  have 
spurned  had  they  been  offered  in  exchange  for  the  faith  and 
pride  of  his  brethren  and  countrymen.  It  was  on  this  platform 
that  he  won. 

If  the  genuineness  of  the  religious  life  and  experience  of 
Bishop  Galloway  needed  testifying  to  by  his  brethren,  there 
would  rise  up  a  multitude  in  vocal  witness.  But  this  is  not 
needed.  The  testimony  was  in  himself  and  in  his  walk.  His 
con  version  was  genuine  and  marked  with  the  definite  fea- 
tures of  time  and  place.  He  lived  in  intimate  and  conscious 
communion  with  God.  In  the  pastorate  he  exhibited  the  ten- 
derness, sympathy,  and  faithfulness  of  a  disciple  sent  directly 
from  the  Lord.  In  the  pulpit  he  delivered  the  message  which 
the  Master  had  given  him  in  secret.  In  the  episcopal  office  he 
used  the  authority  conferred  upon  him  to  promote  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  As  a  bishop  his  preaching  was  not  different  from 
that  which  he  did  as  a  pastor;  it  was  sound,  evangelical,  and 
quick  with  nascent  throes,  the  offspring  of  his  own  experience. 

The  service  which  Bishop  Galloway  rendered  the  Church 


'Foreign  Minister  of  Methodism" — Sam  Jones.       24: J 


was  large  and  varied.  His  relations  to  ecumenical  Methodism 
were  perhaps  more  extensive  than  those  of  any  other  Wesleyan 
of  his  day.  He  fairly  won  the  distinction — first  worn  by  Dr. 
Coke,  the  earliest  bishop  of  the  Church — of  being  styled  "the 
foreign  minister  of  Methodism."  He  was  sent  abroad  more 
frequently  than  any  other  bishop  of  the  Church,  and  served  in 
all  these  capacities  with  such  effectiveness  and  ability  as  to 
make  him  not  only  the  best  known,  but  also  the  most  influen- 
tial, personality  in  universal  Methodism. 

For  several  years  before  his  going  away  Bishop  Galloway's 
health  had  been  declining,  and  his  malady  had  become  so  pro- 
nounced during  the  last  few  months  of  his  life  that  his  death 
was  almost  daily  expected.  On  the  twelfth  of  May — the  Nizan 
of  our  Southern  year — he  was  translated.  With  what  sorrow 
and  what  sense  of  loss  and  amid  what  throngs  of  his  brethren, 
neighbors,  and  fellow  citizens  his  dust  was  laid  to  rest,  is  a 
story  that  will  long  abide  with  the  Church  and  the  land  that 
loved  him  well. 

Through  its  regular  pastorate  and  the  offices  of  its  connec- 
tional  administration  the  Methodism  of  the  South  has  pro- 
duced a  number  of  men  of  continent-wide  reputation.  It  has 
also  produced  a  group  of  men  who  in  providentially  discovered 
and  providentially  developed  gifts  have  distinguished  their 
Church  and  section.  At  the  head  of  this  list  stands  the  name 
of  Samuel  P.  Jones,  who  was  born  in  1847  and  died  in  1906. 
As  an  evangelist  and  lecturer  "Sam"  Jones,  as  he  was  univer- 
sally known,  attained  a  popularity  and  achieved  a  success  with- 
out parallel.  He  addressed  more  and  greater  audiences  than 
any  other  man  of  the  century.  Probably  no  preacher  of  any 
age  ever  reached  so  many  people  in  the  aggregate.  Nor  was 
this  all.  For  the  time  of  his  ministry  no  preacher  probably 
ever  wielded  so  wide  an  influence.  His  speech  was  homely,  his 
style  direct,  and  his  subjects  were  selected  from  the  common- 
places of  life;  but  there  was  an  inconceivable  charm  in  his 
voice  and  manner  and  a  tremendous  earnestness  in  his  utter- 
ances. His  gospel  was  simple  and  sound,  evangelistic  and 
ethical.  For  a  time  he  was  an  itinerant  in  the  North  Georgia 
Conference,  but  located  that  he  might  be  free  to  meet  the  call 
of  the  continent.    He  compiled* a  number  of  books  of  his  sen- 


214 


History  of  Methodism. 


tentious,  explosive,  and  challenging  sayings.  The  preaching  of 
Sam  Jones  marked  an  era  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Church 
and  in  the  conscience  of  the  people  concerning  civic  righteous- 
ness. 

Rev.  George  R.  Stuart,  D.D.,  formerly  a  local  preacher,  but 
latterly  a  member  of  the  Holston  Conference,  was  an  associate 
of  Sam  Jones  and  has  had  an  unusual  career  in  the  wider 
evangelistic  field,  carrying  his  message  to  every  part  of  the 
continent.  He  has  also  had  remarkable  success  in  his  later 
work  in  the  pastorate.  The  Rev.  H.  C.  Morrison,  D.D.,  has 
also  covered  a  wide  field  in  his  evangelistic  labors  and  has  had 
a  fruitful  ministry  in  many  parts  of  the  Connection. 

A  preacher  and  lecturer  of  extraordinary,  though  erratic, 
genius  was  William  E.  Munsey,  who  died  in  1877,  after  a  ca- 
reer marked  by  sufferings  and  triumphs.  No  preacher  of  the 
age  possessed  similar  gifts.  His  style  is  properly  described  as 
a  "sorcery  of  words."  The  imageries  of  his  discourses  were 
overwhelming.  Nor  were  his  marvelous  creations  of  fancy  and 
rhetoric  at  the  expense  of  gospel  soundness  and  directness  of 
appeal.  The  multitudes  who  heard  him  were  melted  to  peni- 
tence and  tears.  He  was  a  century  plant  that  filled  the  land 
with  an  almost  unearthly  perfume;  but  the  flower  of  his  aston- 
ishing genius  was  also  its  fruit,  and  the  plant  died  with  its 
blossom.  It  was  an  impossible  product.  If  not  itself  the  off- 
spring of  dying,  it  made  such  drafts  upon  brain  and  fiber  that 
the  penalty  was  death,  cumulative  and  certain.  The  two  vol- 
umes of  Dr.  Munsey's  sermons  and  lectures  were  once  much 
read  and  admired. 

Perhaps  the  most  successful  and  effective  controversialist 
produced  by  American  Methodism  is  Jacob  Ditzler,  a  native 
of  Germany,  born  about  1825.  The  better  part  of  the  years  of 
a  long  ministerial  life  and  the  better  part  of  his  powers  have 
been  given  to  the  task  of  defending  the  doctrines  of  Christian 
ity  and  the  polity  and  usages  of  Methodism  against  the  infidel 
and  the  ecclesiastical  marauder.  With  a  thorough  grounding 
in  the  original  languages  of  Scripture,  with  the  results  of  an 
exhaustive  research  into  Christian  history  and  antiquities  in 
hand,  and  with  a  natural  love  of  onset,  he  has  been  an  antago- 
nist whom  the  disputer  has  had  cause  to  dread. 


Centenary  of  the  Constitution. 


245 


For  a  quarter  of  a  century  or  more  following  its  first  cycle 
the  Methodism  of  North  America  moved  amid  an  inspiring  re- 
currence of  memorable  dates.  First  came  the  centenary  year, 
then  all  but  innumerable  memorials  of  the  Asburian  episcopate, 
to  which  was  added  the  jubilee  of  the  organization  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  in  the  South.  An  instructive  and  widely  interest- 
ing centennial  was  also  that  of  the  constitution,  which  fell  at 
the  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  at  Baltimore  in 
May,  1908.  This  interesting  celebration  came  on  May  7,  the 
day  upon  which  the  General  Conference  opened  its  session.  It 
was  an  occasion  upon  which  the  thought  of  both  Methodisms 
could  appropriately  center.  A  representative  from  the  South 
was,  therefore,  invited  to  deliver  an  address  on  behalf  of  the 
Methodism  of  that  section.  This  service  was  rendered  by  H. 
M.  Du  Bose,  D.D.,  at  that  time  General  Secretary  of  the  Ep- 
worth  League.  The  subject  assigned  him  was  "The  Methodism 
of  1808,"  naturally  suggesting  the  time  when  Methodism  in 
North  America  was  one.  Dr.  Charles  W.  Smith,  editor  of  the 
Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  later  elected  bishop,  read  a  pa- 
per on  "The  Constitution"  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  then  re- 
cently codified  fundamental  law  of  the  Church,  North.  This 
paper  had  many  points  of  permanent  value.  Dr.  McConnell, 
of  the  Brooklyn  pastorate,  and  Bishop  Warren  delivered  ad- 
dresses on  "The  Methodism  of  To-Day"  and  "The  Methodism  of 
To-Morrow,"  respectively.  This  celebration  served  to  deepen 
the  interest  in  Methodist  law  and  canon  which  had  already  had 
a  pronounced  revival  in  both  Connections. 

The  twenty-fifth  delegated  session,  being  the  thirtieth  from 
the  beginning,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America  convened  in  Lyric  Hall,  Baltimore,  May  7, 
1908.  The  spot  was  not  far  from  the  scene  of  the  General 
Conference  which  a  hundred  years  before  had  adopted  a  con- 
stitution for  the  government  of  the  lawmaking  body  of  the  then 
united  Connection.  Baltimore  had  welcomed  each  of  the  six 
successive  General  Conferences  from  1784  to  1808.  From  that 
time  the  scepter  departed,  to  return  fitfully  after  being  wielded 
in  other  great  and  growing  centers.  Yet  the  sessions  of  1816, 
1820,  and  1824  were  convened  in  that  city;  and  in  1840  the 


246 


History  of  Methodism. 


last  session  of  the  undivided  body  returned  to  its  long-accus- 
tomed place.  Since  1840  two  sessions  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Church.  North — viz.,  187G  and  1008 — and  one  ses- 
sion of  the  Southern  body — viz.,  1898 — have  met  in  the  city  by 
the  Chesapeake.  Here  the  first  regular  missionaries  of  the 
Church,  Garrettson  and  Cromwell,  were  sent  out  in  1784  to 
Nova  Scotia.  Here,  too,  the  first  educational  program  of  early 
Methodism  was  created  in  the  ideal  of  Cokesbury  College. 
These  and  scores  of  other  memories  have  preserved  to  Baltimore 
an  undying  interest  for  all  American  Methodists. 

The  Episcopal  Address,  as  is  the  usual  custom  in  Methodism, 
was  read  at  the  opening  session.  It  was  a  great  paper  and 
dealt  masterfully  with  a  multitude  of  important  matters.  It 
emphasized  the  relations  of  growing  cordiality  and  fraternity 
with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  declared  against 
a  restatement  of  Methodist  doctrine,  and  also  pronounced 
against  special  legislation  on  the  question  of  worldly  amuse- 
ments, advocating  a  return  to  the  basis  of  the  General  Rules  and 
the  position  of  primitive  Methodism.  It  was  especially  a  clear 
call  on  the  issue  of  the  legal  prohibition  of  the  whisky  traffic. 
A  sublime  spectacle  was  witnessed  when  two  thousand  people, 
including  eight  hundred  official  delegates,  arose  and  cheered 
the  episcopal  utterance.  Methodism  has  everywhere  been  a 
unit  on  prohibition.  It  has  been  the  most  potent  religious  force 
on  the  whole  continent.  Its  voice  has  been  heard.  As  a  record 
of  the  confidence  and  directness  with  which  Methodist  bodies 
have  spoken  on  this  subject,  we  give  here  an  excerpt  from  this 
memorable  address: 

When,  some  years  ago,  the  General  Conference  planted  our  Church 
on  the  heights  of  legal  and  constitutional  prohibition,  some  in  the 
Church  and  many  in  the  world  felt  that  we  had  passed  from  sobriety 
of  judgment  to  fanaticism  and,  in  short,  had  become  "intemperately 
temperate."  To-day  we  find  that  State  after  State  has  climbed  to  our 
position  and  that  unexpected  aid  has  reached  us  from  railway  and  other 
corporations,  as  well  as  from  some  trades  unions.  States  which  have 
been  notoriously  unfriendly  to  any  temperance  legislation,  except  gener- 
al license,  have  passed  local-option  laws  which  have  been  accepted  by 
county  after  county  until  almost  the  whole  State  has  banished  the  sa- 
loon. We  can  measure  the  sincerity  of  the  organs  of  the  liquor  traffic, 
as  well  as  of  the  politicians  they  control,  in  saying  that  "prohibition 


General  Conference  of  1908. 


247 


does  not  prohibit,"  by  their  frantic  efforts  to  defeat  all  prohibitive  or 
restrictive  legislation.  The  well-wishers  of  mankind  will  sing  doxol- 
ogies  in  view  of  the  astonishing  progress  of  the  prohibitive  idea — a 
progress  so  great  that  the  middle-aged  may  hope  to  see  this  curse  of 
curses,  alcoholic  liquor,  put  in  the  cabinet  of  drugs  and  no  more  freely 
sold  than  any  other  irritant  or  soporific  poison.  For  a  long  time  it 
has  given  joy  to  your  General  Superintendents  to  observe  that  this  evil 
traffic  has  known  that  when  a  Methodist  Episcopal  minister  arrived  in 
town,  no  matter  how  he  came,  an  unsparing,  no-quarter  enemy  had  ar- 
rived. On  this  account  our  ministers  have  been  frequently  chosen  to 
lead  the  temperance  army,  whether  fighting  for  local,  State,  or  national 
prohibition;  and  we  unfeignedly  rejoice  that  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  so  recently  led  by  a  sainted  member  of  our  Church, 
aided  by  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  has  prevented  the  reestablishment  of 
the  canteen  and  the  fouling  again  of  the  nation's  hand  by  direct  partici- 
pation in  the  sale  of  liquor. 

When,  in  the  call  of  the  College  of  Bishops,  the  names  of 
Bishops  Joyce,  Merrill,  McCabe,  FitzGerald,  Andrews,  and 
Fowler  were  reached,  there  was  no  response ;  but  Bishop  War- 
ren, answering,  said :  "Transferred  to  the  Church  triumphant." 

In  the  course  of  official  reports  the  very  interesting  state- 
ment was  made  that  the  ministry  of  the  Church  was  preaching 
the  gospel  in  one  hundred  and  forty  languages  and  dialects. 
This  ministry  had  substituted  in  a  multitude  of  hearts  the 
truth  of  Christianity  for  the  errors  of  Buddhism  and  had  given 
to  many  the  brotherhood  of  Jesus  for  the  caste  of  Brahmanism, 
the  hope  of  the  apostolic  gospel  for  the  fatalism  of  Mohammed, 
and  the  leaven  of  grace  and  peace  for  the  stern  philosophy  of 
Confucius.  "In  India,  Siva  surrenders  to  Jesus ;  in  Africa,  the 
fetish  gives  way  to  the  Lamb  of  God."  For  the  quadrennium 
it  was  reported  that  the  net  increase  in  the  number  of  commu- 
nicants totaled  278,357,  the  greatest  gain  for  sixteen  years. 
The  number  of  ministers  in  the  Annual  Conferences  was  19,353, 
an  increase  of  1,171  in  four  years.  The  number  subject  to  ap- 
pointment as  pastors  was  15,722.  The  number  of  local  preach- 
ers serving  as  pastors  was  4,439.  Thus  the  pastoral  army  num- 
bered 20,161.  The  answer  to  the  roll  call  in  the  General  Con- 
ference was  from  every  country. 

The  returns  from  the  work  of  education  were  imposing  in 
their  aggregates.  A  total  of  $25,761,547  was  reported  as  the 
investments  in  educational  enterprises,  an  increase  of  $4,682,- 


248 


History  of  Metlwdism. 


539  for  the  quadrennium.  The  total  of  endowments  was  $23,- 
850,486,  an  increase  for  the  quadrennium  of  §5,800,384.  Thus 
the  whole  amount  invested  in  education  was  §47,509,532,  an 
increase  of  more  than  eleven  million  dollars.  The  figures  on 
Church  property  were  not  less  suggestive.  The  gain  in  value 
of  churches  was  $28,149,024,  and  the  gain  in  value  of  parson- 
ages was  $4,528,871.  The  total  valuation  of  churches  and  par- 
sonages was  but  little  less  than  one  hundred  and  ninety  million 
dollars. 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  can  never  be  indifferent  to  any 
reform  involving  either  moral  questions  or  the  physical  well- 
being  of  the  race.  It  is  only  natural,  therefore,  that  the  Meth- 
odist Churches  have  always  spoken  out  frankly  on  all  matters 
which  have  an  ethical  and  social  bearing.  The  utterances  of 
this  General  Conference  concerning  the  rights  of  labor  and  the 
demands  for  political  honor  and  social  purity  were  not  a  whit 
behind  the  convictions  expressed  by  the  other  great  Christian 
denominations.   It  said : 

We  see  clearly  that  within  the  next  generation  there  are  to  be  great 
social  changes.  The  influence  of  wealth  on  political  life  and  measures 
is  to  grow  less,  whether  it  be  in  the  hands  of  individuals  or  corpora- 
tions. The  workingmen  are  to  have  more  power,  the  idlers  less. 
Anarchistic  movements  are  less  successful  here  than  abroad,  because  of 
universal  suffrage  and  the  ease  with  which  land  can  be  transferred 
and  the  relative  ease  with  which  the  workingman  can  secure  a  home. 
The  man  who  owns  is  the  man  who  wants  peace. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  telegram 
was  sent  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  Stares  asking  thai  sa- 
loons be  not  allowed  in  soldiers'  homes.  The  reception  of  this 
motion  was  the  beginning  of  the  tide  of  temperance  enthusiasm 
which  marked  the  whole  session.  The  iniquity  of  the  "canteen" 
— that  is,  the  saloon  in  barracks  and  soldiers'  homes — soon  be- 
came a  thing  of  memory,  the  Churches  and  the  civic  institutions 
of  the  country  becoming  a  unit  for  its  destruction. 

The  reports  from  the  broad  mission  fields  of  the  Church  were 
a  particular  feature  of  this  Conference.  Bishop  Oldham  re- 
ported upon  Southern  Asia,  and  Bishop  Bashford  upon  China. 
Bishop  Oldham  read  a  detailed  account  of  the  achievements 
and  needs  in  Tndia.  Malaysia,  and  the  Philippines.    The  life 


Of  Missionary  Interests. 


249 


of  these  countries  was  being  quickened  by  the  gospel.  The 
sense  of  personality  and  responsibility  was  growing  as  a  reve- 
lation. The  people  were  beginning  to  find  themselves.  Bishop 
Bashford  recounted  the  movements  of  awakening  life  in  the 
vast  empire  of  China.  Over  his  accounts  of  famine  men  wept ; 
over  his  appeals  for  help  "amens"  were  uttered.  After  the 
report  of  these  two  bishops,  Bishop  Thoburn  spoke  for  India. 
He  was  described  as  "the  Christ-led  leader  of  the  Methodist 
advance,  the  man  who  laid  the  plans  of  campaign  and  who 
lived  to  hear  the  first  shouts  of  the  returning  victors."  The 
report  of  Bishop  Burt,  who  had  charge  of  the  work  in  Europe, 
followed  next  in  order.  As  a  climax  he  said :  "We  must  save 
Europe  and  America  if  we  are  to  save  the  heathen  world,  and 
we  must  save  the  heathen  world  if  we  are  to  save  ourselves." 

We  have  already  given  a  somewhat  particular  account  of  the 
erection  of  the  Japanese  missions  into  a  national  Church.  At 
this  time  the  General  Conference  passed  resolutions  which  were 
meant  to  establish  the  exact  relationship  sustained  by  its  Mis- 
sion Board  to  that  field. 

While  the  general  question  of  missions  was  under  consider- 
ation, the  following  resolution  was  introduced — namely :  "That 
if  the  Committee  on  Episcopacy  should  deem  it  advisable  to 
elect  the  missionary  bishops  General  Superintendents,  then  said 
committee  is  to  report  to  the  General  Conference  how  many 
General  Superintendents  shall  be  elected  to  give  the  Church  and 
missions  the  same  superintendency  now  enjoyed."  This  effort 
to  do  away  with  the  missionary  episcopate  signally  failed ;  but 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  Bishop  Oldham,  one  of  the  missionary 
bishops,  was  consecrated  to  the  general  superintendency  in 
1908.  On  the  retirement  of  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn  at  this 
time  (1908)  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley  said: 

Mr.  President,  there  has  never  been  a  man  like  unto  James  M.  Tho- 
burn in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  for  the  purpose  to  which  he 
devoted  his  life.  With  simplicity  mingled  with  sagacity;  with  straight- 
forward English,  and  yet  at  times  under  inspiration  reaching  the  spirit 
and  the  words  of  the  ancient  prophets,  but  more  frequently  the  apostle 
John,  he  has  persuaded  us  when  he  could  not  convince,  and  convinced 
us  when  he  could  not  persuade.  Consequently  he  has  had  his  way, 
which  he  believed  was  God's  way. 


250 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  Conference  modified  the  conditions  of  probationary  mem- 
bership from  the  old  standard  requirements  to  the  following: 
"Let  no  one  be  admitted  into  full  membership  in  the  Church 
until  he  has  been  recommended  by  the  official  board  or  the 
leaders'  and  stewards'  meeting,  with  the  approval  of  the  pas- 
tor, has  been  baptized,  and,  on  examination,  has  given  satis- 
factory assurance  both  of  the  correctness  of  his  faith  and  of 
his  willingness  to  observe  and  keep  the  rules  of  the  Church." 

A  somewhat  formal  proposition  for  union  came  from  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church.  This  proposition  was  probably 
one  of  the  insistent  influences  which  have  led  up  to  the  formal 
and  hopeful  negotiations  for  a  general  Methodist  union.  Mem- 
orable utterances  were  indulged  on  this  occasion.  Amongst 
the  speakers  were  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  who  referred  to  Thomas 
Stockton,  Alexander  Clark,  and  other  Methodist  Protestant 
leaders,  and  told  how  bitterly  the  fathers  had  fought  that 
Church ;  though  in  the  spirit  and  by  the  methods  illustrated  in 
more  recent  dealings  with  the  question  of  the  admission  of  lay- 
men and  women  into  the  General  Conference,  they  might  have 
been  adjusted  without  a  separation.  He  seconded  the  resolu- 
tions and  said  further: 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  is  in  itself  a  very  respectable  body, 
so  much  so  that  a  body  having  nothing  in  common — namely,  Congre- 
gationalism— has  stretched  out  its  hands  to  welcome  them  to  its  bosom. 
This  is  the  finest  thing  that  has  ever  been  brought  before  the  body. 
I  assure  you  that  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  fetish  of  corporate  mani- 
festations, but  I  do  believe  that  all  Methodists  should  try  to  unite  all 
through  the  world.  I  do  not  want  to  affiliate  externally  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church;  though  if  men  accuse  it  of  too  many  things, 
I  will  take  a  brief  for  it.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  connected  with  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church,  because  I  do  not  want  any  man  who  believes 
in  a  third  order  to  have  the  opportunity  of  ruling  me.  I  look  upon  the 
Presbyterian  Church  with  the  greatest  delight,  and  I  have  a  very  great 
respect  for  the  Congregational  body  and  for  the  Baptists.  But  I  can- 
not join  any  of  them,  for  I  do  not  agree  in  all  the  fundamentals.  But 
with  Methodists  I  can  agree.  They  know  their  doctrines  without  a  new 
statement.  They  know  their  spirit,  and  they  know  just  what  they  are. 
Now  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  of  these  men  may  come  to 
us. 

In  their  address  the  bishops  recommended  unfavorable  action 
on  the  invitation  to  join  in  a  new  statement  of  Methodist  faith. 


Failure  of  Restatement. 


251 


The  Committee  of  Fifteen  appointed  to  report  on  this  matter 
submitted  the  following  paper,  which  was  adopted : 

Your  committee  have  pondered  with  care  the  gravity  of  this  impor- 
tant proposal  and  of  its  possible  consequences.  We  remember  with 
gladness,  in  this  year  1908  especially,  our  common  origin,  our  common 
traditions,  and  our  common  faith.  We  desire  also  to  reciprocate  most 
cordially  every  manifestation  of  fraternity. 

We  are,  nevertheless,  compelled,  in  the  presence  of  this  overture,  to 
recall  the  earnest  wish  of  our  fathers  that  our  Articles  of  Religion 
and  our  Standards  of  Doctrine  should  remain  unchanged;  and  having 
weighed  the  arguments  in  favor  of  it,  we  are  not  convinced  of  the  neces- 
sity or  the  expediency  of  the  proposed  new  statement  of  our  doctrines. 

Accordingly,  we  unanimously  recommend  that  this  General  Confer- 
ence respectfully  decline  to  take  the  action  requested,  at  the  same  time 
renewing  the  expression  of  our  fraternal  love  for  the  Methodist  Episco- 
cal  Church,  South. 

As  a  side  light  on  this  matter,  an  excerpt  from  the  fraternal 
address  of  the  Rev.  John  S.  Simon,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Conference,  before  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Church,  South,  in  1910,  may  be  appreciated.   He  said : 

Now,  in  England  we  have  no  Twenty-Five  Articles,  and  certainly  we 
have  not  "Thirty-Nine  Articles."  That  would  be — what  was  it?  "Forty 
stripes  save  one."  We  have  simply  the  sermons  of  Wesley;  we  have 
the  notes  on  the  New  Testament;  and  our  standard  of  orthodoxy  is 
this,  that  we  shall  preach  nothing  contrary  to  what  is  contained  in 
these  standards.  We  may  preach  an  individual  gospel,  but  it  must  not 
antagonize  those  standards.  We  have  the  broadest  creed  in  Christen- 
dom. And  if  you  ask  me  why  we  have  very  few  doctrinal  controversies 
in  England,  I  would  say  the  reason  is  this:  that  we  are  not  tied  to  a 
hidebound  creed. 

Memorial  Day  coming  during  the  sitting  of  the  Conference, 
it  was  celebrated  as  one  of  the  calendar  features  of  the  session. 
Senator  Beveridge,  a  Methodist  layman  and  a  member  of  the 
Conference,  was  orator.  He  eschewed  politics  in  his  discussion 
and  took  for  his  text  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court :  "That 
when  a  common  evil  cannot  be  arrested  by  a  State,  then  the 
Federal  government  should  interfere."  "Intemperance,  child 
labor,  and  immoral  literature  should  be  suppressed  by  statu- 
torial  enactments."  He  said  the  North  had  emancipated  the 
negro,  but  had  left  a  million  white  children  in  the  slavery  of 
factories,  mines,  and  sweatshops.    He  earnestly  pleaded  for  a 


252 


History  of  Method  ism. 


rising  throughout  the  whole  country  against  this  immolation 
of  childhood  and  against  the  enemies  of  home  and  motherhood 
in  the  shape  of  the  licensed  liquor  traffic.  To  this  address  the 
Conference  gave  enthusiastic  indorsement. 

An  interesting  side  event  of  the  Conference  session  was  a 
visit  of  the  body  to  Washington  City,  on  which  occasion  the 
Hon.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  President  of  the  United  States, 
delivered  a  notable  address.  One  paragraph,  at  least,  of  that 
utterance  deserves  a  place  in  this  history.  The  President  said  : 

And  now,  friends,  it  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  be  with  you  to-day  and 
to  bid  you  welcome  on  behalf  of  the  nation,  here  in  the  capital' of  the 
nation.  I  am  glad  to  meet  here  good  Methodists  from  so  many  lands. 
The  Methodist  Church  plays  a  great  part  in  many  lands,  and  yet  I  think 
I  can  say  that  in  none  other  has  it  played  so  great  and  peculiar  a  part 
as  here  in  the  United  States.  Its  history  is  indissolubly  interwoven  with 
the  history  of  our  country  for  the  sixscore  years  since  the  constitutional 
convention  made  us  really  a  nation.  Methodism  in  America  entered 
on  its  period  of  rapid  growth  just  about  the  time  of  Washington's  first 
presidency.  Its  essential  democracy,  its  fiery  and  restless  energy  of 
spirit,  and  the  wide  play  that  it  gave  to  individual  initiative — all 
tended  to  make  it  peculiarly  congenial  to  a  hardy  and  virile  folk,  dem- 
ocratic to  the  core,  prizing  individual  independence  above  all  earthly  pos- 
sessions, and  engaged  in  the  rough  and  stern  work  of  conquering  a  con- 
tinent. Methodism  spread  even  among  the  old  communities  and  long- 
settled  districts  of  the  Atlantic  tidewater,  but  its  phenomenal  growth 
was  from  these  regions  westward.  The  whole  country  is  under  a  debt 
of  gratitude  to  the  Methodist  circuit  riders,  the  Methodist  pioneer 
preachers,  whose  movement  westward  kept  pace  with  the  movement  of 
the  frontier,  who  shared  all  the  hardships  in  the  life  of  the  frontiers- 
man, while  at  the  same  time  ministering  to  that  frontiersman's  spiritual 
needs  and  seeing  that  his  pressing  material  cares  and  the  hard  and 
grinding  poverty  of  his  life  did  not  wholly  extinguish  the  divine  fire 
within  his  soul. 

The  Conference  having  decided  upon  the  election  of  eight 
additional  bishops,  the  following-named  were  chosen — viz. : 
William  F.  Anderson,  John  L.  Nuelsen,  William  A.  Quayle, 
Charles  W.  Smith.  Wilson  S.  Lewis,  Edwin  H.  Hughes,  Robert 
Mclntyre,  and  Frank  M.  Bristol.  In  1888  the  General  Confer- 
ence had  determined  that  two-thirds  of  the  votes  casl  should  be 
required  for  the  election  of  a  bishop.  This  fact  so  multiplied  the 
ballots  that  a  week  was  consumed  in  securing  these  elections. 

Bishop  Anderson  was  born  April  22,   I860.     In  1904  he 


Elections — Fraternal  Addresses.  ur>:; 


was  elected  to  succeed  Bishop  McDowell  as  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  in  which  post  he  was  serving  at  the  time 
of  his  election.  Bishop  Nuelsen  was  born  in  Switzerland  in 
1867,  his  father  being  a  missionary  to  that  country.  In  the 
course  of  his  education  he  had  accomplished  himself  not  only 
in  English,  but  in  French  and  German.  Bishop  Quayle  was 
born  in  1861.  Even  before  his  election  he  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  preachers  and  lecturers  on  the  continent.  Bishop 
Smith  is  the  oldest  man  who  has  ever  been  elected  to  the  Meth- 
odist episcopacy.  He  was  born  in  1840  and  was,  therefore, 
sixty-eight  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  election.  Bishop 
Lewis  is  said  to  have  owed  his  election  to  his  deep  religious 
experience,  his  brotherly  kindness,  and  his  great  success  as  an 
educator.  Bishop  Hughes  had  spent  all  his  ministerial  life  in 
the  pastorate,  except  a  brief  incumbency  of  the  presidency  of 
De  Pauw  University,  in  which  position  he  was  serving  at  the 
time  of  his  election.  He  is  still  reckoned  amongst  the  younger 
men  of  the  Connection.  Bishop  Mclntyre  was  of  Scotch  par- 
entage and  was  deemed  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  accom- 
plished men  in  the  Church.  His  death  occurred  in  1915.  Bish- 
op Bristol  spent  his  entire  ministerial  life  in  the  pastorate  be- 
fore his  election  to  the  episcopacy.  He  is  rated  as  a  man  of 
preeminent  gifts. 

The  election  of  connectional  officers  resulted  as  follows: 
Publishing  Agents,  Homer  Eaton,  George  P.  Mains,  Henry  C. 
Jennings,  and  E.  K.  Graham;  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, A.  B.  Leonard;  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
Thomas  Nicholson;  Secretary  of  the  Sunday  School  Board, 
David  G.  Downey;  Secretary  of  the  Epworth  League,  E.  M. 
Randall ;  Editor  of  the  Methodist  Review,  W.  V.  Kelley ;  Editor 
of  the  Christian  Advocate,  James  M.  Buckley;  Editor  of  the 
Epworth  Herald,  S.  J.  Herben. 

Fraternal  addresses  were  heard  from  many  Churches  besides 
those  within  the  Methodist  circle.  The  British  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference and  the  Irish  Church  were  represented  by  the  Rev.  John 
Goodman,  who  introduced  himself  as  a  "circuit  preacher"  and 
insisted  upon  the  appellation.  The  Canadian  Church  was  rep- 
resented by  the  Rev.  James  Henderson,  D.D.,  and  the  Hon.  N. 
W.  Rowell,  K.C.   The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  was 


254 


History  of  Methodism. 


represented  by  the  Rev.  Collins  Denny,  D.D.,  afterwards  elected 
bishop.  Amongst  other  things  characteristically  and  frankly 
expressed,  Dr.  Denny  said  : 

We  are  told  that  the  Old  South  is  gone — gone  never  to  return. 
These  many  years  we  have  heard  much  of  a  New  South.  The  underly- 
ing assumption  seems^  to  be  that  the  old  race  is  dead  and  buried  and 
that  a  new  race,  wholly  disconnected  from  the  old,  has  taken  its  place. 
Let  us  not  delude  ourselves;  for  delusion  is  not  light,  but  darkness. 
The  South  to-day — the  New  South — is  not  a  different  race,  but  the 
same  race.  The  branch  is  different,  but  the  root  is  the  same.  The 
blood  of  the  Old  South  is  our  blood,  and  its  racial  traits  are  our  racial 
traits.  A  variation  of  conditions  may  have  affected  the  form;  it  has 
not  changed  the  substance.  Human  life  is  always  developmental,  never 
cataclysmal.  To  the  law  that  nature  does  not  proceed  by  leaps  the 
South  cannot  be  an  exception.  Tersely  and  truly  did  the  genial  Dr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  say:  "Every  man  is  an  omnibus  in  which  all 
his  ancestors  ride."  Within  our  lives  are  inclosed  our  ancestors.  Our 
care  should  be,  and  shall  be,  that  nothing  great  and  noble  in  them  shall 
be  lacking  in  us.  Were  they  chivalrous?  The  true  chivalry  which 
manifests  itself  not  in  show,  but  in  readiness  of  renunciation,  must 
also  be  our  possession.  Were  they  high-minded?  We,  too,  must  have 
the  height  of  mind  which  is  slow  to  make  a  demand,  but  quick  to  do 
a  kindness.  Were  they  tender  in  honor?  Be  it  also  ours  to  develop 
a  character  that  instinctively  recoils  from  every  form  of  baseness. 
Changed  conditions  may  alter  the  form  of  our  hospitality,  but  God 
forbid  that  we  should  ever  become  inhospitable  to  truth  and  sympathy 
and  charity!  For  visitors  from  these  and  kindred  realms  may  the 
doors  of  our  hearts  ever  be  wide  open  and  our  boards  always  laden 
with  welcoming  nourishment!  These  are  social  obligations  that  bind 
all  of  us.  Such  ideals  as  these  I  covet  for  the  South,  yea,  for  our 
whole  dear  country,  irrespective  of  section;  for  in  the  very  presence 
of  God  they  can  be  unblushingly  avowed,  and,  welcomed  into  our  lives, 
they  will  become  our  guardian  angels  which  "in  clear  dream  and  sol- 
emn vision  tell  us  of  things  that  no  gross  ear  can  hear."  Indeed,  they 
will  be  like  those  ministering  spirits  who,  the  apostle  tells  us,  are  sent 
forth  to  minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation;  for,  rightly 
understood,  these  are  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

At  the  close  of  this  period  the  Church  in  Canada  was  rejoic- 
ing in  continued  prosperity  and  was  laying  great  stress  upon 
the  character  and  work  of  its  pulpit.  This  work  was  described 
as  taking  four  different  types,  corresponding  to  the  four  periods 
through  which  Methodism  has  passed — namely:  the  revivalistic, 
or  early  Wesleyan,  type  ;  the  controversial,  or  militant,  type;  the 
expositive,  or  teaching,  type;  and  the  practical  and  ethical,  or 


Canada  and  Missions — Fraternal  Address. 


'1 55 


more  modern,  type.  The  direct  and  reviyalistic  type  was  domi- 
nant, however;  and  the  results  were  seen  in  the  Church's  annua] 
reports.  The  great  home  missionary  problem  of  Canada  was 
still  that  of  its  native  Indian  population.  To  this  was  added 
the  everlasting  complexity  of  the  Asiatic  problem — the  Japa- 
nese, the  Chinese,  and  the  Hindus.  In  every  report  made  by 
representatives  of  Dominion  Methodism  the  issues  created  by 
the  presence  of  these  peoples  were  uppermost.  The  Church 
reported  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight  missionaries  in  China, 
Japan,  and  Western  Canada.  For  all  purposes  the  Church  was 
contributing  considerably  more  than  four  million  dollars  an- 
nually. These  figures  had  little  significance  when  compared 
with  the  larger  gifts  of  American  Methodists;  but,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  in  the  average  per  capita  they  put  Canadian 
Methodism  in  an  uncontested  class. 

As  the  Churches  in  the  United  States  had  united  in  a  great 
Missionary  Conference,  so  the  Churches  of  Canada  gathered 
themselves  in  April,  1909,  for  a  similar  fellowship  and  study. 
Some  four  thousand  men,  representing  all  Churches  and  coming 
from  all  parts  of  the  Dominion,  met  in  Massey  Hall,  Toronto, 
and  spent  nearly  one  week  considering  how  best  to  accomplish 
the  sublime  task  which  had  already  been  proposed,  "the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  in  the  present  generation."  The  result 
of  the  gathering  was  to  give  a  great  inspiration  to  the  move- 
ment for  missions  in  those  far  northern  lands.  Like  the  Church 
in  England,  the  Church  in  Canada  some  time  ago  divided  its 
mission  work  into  twro  separate  departments,  home  and  foreign, 
each  under  the  direction  of  a  separate  secretary,  but  all  con- 
trolled by  a  general  board. 

The  Rev.  W.  B.  Murrah,  D.D.,  since  elected  to  the  episcopacy, 
was  fraternal  delegate  from  the  Southern  Church  to  the  Cana- 
dian General  Conference  at  its  session  in  1902  and  made  his 
report  to  the  General  Conference  of  1906.  In  adverting  to 
conditions  in  the  South,  Dr.  Murrah  said : 

I  think  I  may  fairly  claim  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  is  possessed  of  a  spirit  of  aggressiveness  not  surpassed  in  any 
previous  period  of  our  history.  We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  demands 
imposed  by  modern  conditions.  We  recognize  the  fact  that  with  every 
age  there  have  been  associated  peculiar  responsibilities  and  that  our 


256 


History  of  Methodism. 


times  are  not  exceptional  in  this  regard.  Responsibilities  imperative 
and  exacting  confront  us.  Problems  of  the  gravest  kind,  problems  in- 
separable from  the  times  in  which  we  live,  meet  us  on  every  hand.  To 
ignore  them  would  be  folly,  to  shun  them  would  be  cowardice,  and  to 
try  to  cope  with  them  with  inadequate  equipment  would  involve  noth- 
ing less  than  confusion  and  defeat. 

The  same  difficulty  of  comparison  noted  in  the  case  of  the 
Methodism  of  Canada  obtains  in  connection  with  the  Method 
ism  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Conferences  tributary  to  the 
Mother  Connection.  Yet  the  facts  connected  with  the  advance 
of  the  work  throughout  that  Connection  were  of  the  greatest 
interest  and  suggest  a  constantly  profitable  study.  Great  Brit- 
ain at  this  time  was  divided  into  about  eight  hundred  circuits. 
In  Ireland  there  were  seven  hundred  and  fifty  more.  A  cir- 
cuit in  the  Wesleyan  Connection  differs  from  a  circuit  in  the 
American  Conferences.  It  consists  of  a  town  with  a  population 
more  or  less  large  and  gathered  around  it  a  number  of  village 
churches.  With  Louth,  for  instance,  there  were  thirty  two 
villages.  Three  ministers  were  appointed  to  this  group  of 
churches.  They  were  constantly  aided  by  an  army  of  local 
preachers,  who,  with  the  pastors,  carefully  cultivated  the  field. 
This  statement  of  fact  will  illuminate  and  give  cogency  to  the 
statistics  reported  in  the  Wesleyan  Minutes  for  the  year  1908. 
They  are  as  follows:  Three  thousand  six  hundred  ministers, 
thirty  thousand  lay  preachers,  eight  hundred  thousand  Church 
members,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Sunday  school  offi- 
cers and  teachers,  nearly  one  and  a  quarter  million  Sunday 
school  children,  and  four  million  worshipers.  These  figures 
roughly  described  the  work  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  Great 
Britain  and  in  the  Conferences  over  which  the  Mother  Confer- 
ence had  supervision. 

A  well-approved  method  of  the  time  in  England  was  to  equip 
gospel  cars  to  traverse  the  lanes  and  hamlets  of  outlying  places. 
The  work  of  the  detachments  carried  by  these  cars  was  to  dis- 
tribute literature,  preach  the  gospel  on  village  greens,  and  oth- 
erwise make  appeals  of  salvation  to  the  people.  In  view  of 
these  facts  proceeding  in  the  open  light  of  day,  one  does  not 
wonder  at  the  saying  of  Prof.  Adolph  Harnack,  of  Berlin,  in 
1904:  "The  Methodist  Church  is  the  richest  in  it*  experience 


Deaths  of  Prominent  English  Methodists. 


1OT 


of  salvation,  the  most  active  in  its  operations,  and  the  most 
fruitful  in  results  of  all  the  post-Reformation  Churches." 

Every  year  not  only  brings  its  green  and  fruitful  branches 
upon  every  tree,  but  also  its  blight  and  fading  of  death.  With 
the  songs  of  triumph  and  the  reports  of  successful  workers 
come  again  and  again  the  tidings  of  death.  Among  the  promi- 
nent workers  in  England  removed  from  their  places  during  this 
period  is  to  be  mentioned  the  name  of  the  oldest  living  min- 
ister of  the  Connection,  Richard  Rymer,  who  had  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  Robert  Newton,  Richard  Watson,  and  Jabez  Bun- 
ting. Of  the  younger  men  and  those  in  the  meridian  of  life, 
the  three  most  famous — famous  through  faithful  service  and 
merit  —  were  Albert  Clayton,  President  of  the  Conference, 
James  Robertson,  and  William  Gorman.  Only  a  little  while 
before  his  death  James  Robertson  was  present  in  Albert  Hall, 
London,  at  a  great  foreign  missionary  meeting,  when  nine  thou- 
sand Methodists  gathered,  and  half  as  many  more  tried  in  vain 
to  secure  admission.  On  that  occasion  he  uttered  a  prayer  of 
great  power  and  spiritual  eloquence.  Not  long  after  came  his 
translation. 

Albert  Clayton,  the  President  of  the  Conference,  was  a  mau 
deeply  loved  and  honored  amongst  his  brethren,  a  commoner 
in  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  had  gone  through  all  the  stages  of 
a  Methodist  preacher's  advancement — circuit  minister,  depart- 
ment officer,  District  Chairman,  Secretary,  and  President  of  the 
Conference.  It  was  written  of  him  at  the  time  that  "his  im- 
mortality, his  earthly  immortality,  will  consist  in  the  fact  that, 
with  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks  (afterwards  made  a  knight),  he  created, 
directed,  and  completed  the  Million  Guinea  Fund,  a  movement 
which  some  of  the  other  Churches  of  the  land  enjoyed." 

William  Gorman  was  an  Irishman  and  was  the  poet-preacher 
of  Irish  Methodism.  He  made  preaching  a  fine  art,  a  divine 
art.  "He  was  of  imagination  all  compact."  In  the  second 
Ecumenical  Conference,  in  Washington  City,  he  delivered  a 
thrilling  address  on  "The  Enfranchisement  of  Woman." 

These  were  men  who  made  the  measure  of  modern  Methodism 
in  England  and  who  helped  to  carry  its  causes  into  the  broad- 
est light  of  the  new  century. 

In  1908  Methodism  in  England  rejoiced  in  the  presence  of 
17 


258 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  first  peer  of  the  realm  in  its  lay  membership.  Sir  Henry 
Fowler,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State  for  India  and  who 
had  enjoyed  the  special  confidence  of  Queen  Victoria,  to  whom 
he  was  a  private  counselor,  was  honored  with  elevation  to  a 
seat  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Another  distinguished  layman, 
the  Hon.  Walter  Runciman,  was  also  prominent  in  the  govern- 
ment at  this  time. 

The  Conference  had  taken  a  new  step  in  arranging  rules  of 
Church  membership.  The  committee  appointed  to  complete 
this  important  business  made  its  report,  showing  that  these 
rules  covered  the  following  doctrinal  heads:  ''The  Nature  of  the 
Church,"  "The  Church  Universal  and  Particular,'-  "The  Minis 
try  and  the  Sacraments,"  "The  Methodist  Fellowship,"  "The 
Rules  of  Society,"  "The  Conditions  of  Membership,"  "Member- 
ship on  Trial,"  "Entrance  into  Full  Membership,"  "Church 
Membership — Its  Privileges  and  Obligations."  These  rules 
were  disciplinary  and  administrative. 

The  anniversary  meeting  for  this  year  brought  out  the  inter- 
esting report  that  the  membership  on  the  foreign  field  was 
112,724,  an  increase  of  4,282  for  the  year.  The  contributions 
had  risen  from  twenty-four  thousand  pounds  to  twenty-five 
thousand  pounds.  The  home  contributions  for  foreign  missions 
were  found  to  be  four  hundred  pounds — i.  e.,  two  thousand 
dollars — increase  for  the  year.  The  total  income  of  the  Mission 
Board  was  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  pounds,  or  above 
one  million  dollars.  There  were  more  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  children  in  training  on  the  foreign  field. 

Essentially  missionary  as  British  Methodism  had  always 
been,  it  was  never  more  so  than  at  this  period.  Her  many 
missions,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  displayed  vitality  and  un- 
surpassed enterprise.  The  home  and  foreign  missions  were  ad- 
ministered by  two  distinct  departments.  The  home  mission 
<lopartment  dates  back  to  the  days  of  Wesley.  The  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Missionary  Society  was  formally  inaugurated  in 
1818.  While  in  England  it  is  recognized  that  foreign  and  do- 
mestic missions  are  similar,  it  has  always  been  considered  ex- 
pedient to  keep  them  under  separate  management.  This  is  a 
broad  lesson  of  experiment  and  results  which  other  Methodist 
bodies  might  profitably  study  and  imitate. 


Home  Mission  Board — Ireland. 


The  Home  Mission  Board  had  long  been  under  the  able  di- 
rection of  Dr.  H.  J.  Pope,  assisted  by  the  Kev.  Simpson  John- 
son. The  work  of  this  Board  is:  (1)  The  employment  of  con- 
nectional  evangelists;  (2)  ministries  to  special  classes  of  the 
community;  and  (3)  the  establishment  in  large  towns  of  great 
central  missions  and  the  amalgamation  of  feeble  country  cir- 
cuits into  extensive  rural  missions.  The  great  mission  halls  of 
this  Board  have  pricked  the  foolish  bubble  that  the  modern 
Church  has  no  hold  upon  workingmen.  Not  since  the  days  of 
Wesley  had  such  large  congregations  of  working  people  and  the 
very  poor  gathered  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  as  assembled 
every  Sunday  in  these  missions.  There  was  nothing  out  of  the 
ordinary  to  attract  to  these  services.  Heartiness  and  evangel- 
istic fervor  were  the  only  appeals  made.  In  connection  with 
this  enterprise  was  the  organization  of  brotherhoods.  One  of 
the  largest  of  these  organizations  was  that  at  East  Brook  Hall, 
Bradford,  where  an  average  attendance  of  two  thousand  men 
was  maintained  all  through  the  summer.  It  was  believed  that 
fully  eighty-seven  thousand  men  attended  the  meetings  of  these 
brotherhoods  on  a  single  Sabbath. 

The  work  in  Ireland  was  reported  of  in  the  same  spirit  of 
earnestness,  if  not  with  the  same  degree  of  success.  The  energy 
and  enterprise  which  are  a  marked  feature  of  the  mission  work 
of  English  Methodism  found  a  worthy  counterpart  in  Belfast. 
Grosvenor  Hall  had  had  a  long  period  of  prosperity,  and 
the  North  Belfast  Mission  bade  fair  to  rival  it  in  success. 
There  was  no  better-known  figure  in  Belfast  than  that  of  the 
Rev.  William  Maguire,  the  head  of  the  mission,  a  man  of  great 
energy  and  enthusiasm  and  whose  name  became  a  household 
word  among  the  poor  of  that  city. 

About  this  time  Ireland  was  visited  by  Gypsy  Smith,  the 
great  Methodist  evangelist  whose  field  is  the  world.  At  the  in- 
vitation of  the  Presbyterians,  he  held  a  mission  in  their  large 
assembly  room  in  Belfast,  which  was  attended  with  great  re- 
sults and  had  a  stimulating  effect  upon  the  whole  Protestant 
Christianity  of  the  island.  The  city-to-city  missionary  move- 
ment in  Irish  Methodism  is  one  of  the  signs  of  virility  in 
modern-day  Christianity. 

The  temperance  question  is  a  perennial  one  in  Ireland.  The 


260 


History  of  Methodism. 


expenditure  of  its  people  for  strong  drink  is  in  proportion 
almost  unparalleled  elsewhere  in  the  earth.  Irish  Methodism 
early  laid  a  strong  hold  upon  this  evil.  The  Irish  Temperance 
League,  which  was  organized  about  this  time,  was  composed 
of  all  the  Protestant  religious  influences  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  island.  Its  work  was  so  persistent  and  satisfactory  that 
the  liquor  trade  of  the  island  soon  acknowledged  its  potency 
and  treated  it  as  a  serious  menace.  A  representative  Irish 
Methodist  in  the  midst  of  these  movements  gave  it  as  his  judg- 
ment that  there  is  no  country  where  more  direct  and  apparent 
results  can  be  obtained  for  evangelistic  and  social  work  than 
in  Ireland.  It  is  ardently  believed  that  with  the  passing  of 
the  present  bloody  world  war  Ireland  will  awake  to  a  new  life 
in  religious  faith  and  in  social  and  industrial  endeavor.  Irish 
Methodism  has  been  shaping  itself  for  a  time  so  hopeful  and 
prophetic  of  results. 

Methodism  in  Australasia  comes  to  be  more  a  matter  of  in- 
terest to  American  Wesleyans  than  formerly.  To  the  Method- 
ists of  the  South  this  interest  has  been  greatly  accentuated  in 
the  fraternal  visit  paid  to  the  Conferences  in  the  Antipodes  by 
their  distinguished  representative,  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  who  in 
1915  included  that  country  in  his  visitation  of  the  Eastern 
mission  field.  How  thorough  has  been  the  fusion  of  Methodism 
under  the  Southern  Cross  was  proved  by  the  fact  of  the  calling 
to  the  presidency  of  its  two  most  prominent  Annual  Confer- 
ences in  1908  two  ministers  who  were  formerly  of  the  Primi- 
tive Methodist  Church,  the  smallest  of  the  Australasian  bodies 
at  the  time  of  the  union.  These  ministers  were  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Hunt,  chosen  President  of  the  Victoria  Conference,  and 
the  Rev.  I.  Castlehow,  chosen  to  preside  over  the  Conference  in 
Queensland. 

The  totals  of  pastoral  reports  for  this  year  showed  an  in- 
crease in  the  membership  of  two  thousand  adults,  with  about 
an  equal  number  of  junior  additions.  An  interesting  feature 
of  this  report  is  that  of  the  remaining  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
the  Maoris,  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty  are  on  the 
Church's  membership  roll.  As  in  England  and  Ireland,  interest 
in  the  foreign  mission  work  was  at  high  tide  in  Australia. 
The  Rev.  George  Brown,  D.D.,  who  had  for  more  than  twenty 


South  Sea  Missions. 


2G1 


years  been  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Board,  had  brought  the 
work  to  a  point  of  great  efficiency  and  success.  A  quite  ro- 
mantic touch  was  given  to  the  routine  of  the  Board's  report 
by  the  story  of  the  return  to  the  Continent  of  the  Rev.  W.  E. 
Bromilow  after  ten  years  in  Fiji  and  seventeen  in  New  Guinea, 
bringing  with  him  the  completed  translation  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  in  the  Doubuan  language.  Through  the  liberality  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  this  translation  was 
printed.  The  translator  was  to  continue  his  work  to  an  in- 
clusion of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Rev.  J.  F.  Goldy,  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  Solomon  Islands,  reported  that  twenty-two 
churches  had  been  erected  in  those  islands  and  were  being- 
attended  by  eight  thousand  six  hundred  persons.  He  brought 
with  him  to  Australia  a  native  lad  whose  father  had  been  one 
of  the  most  notorious  head  hunters  in  the  islands. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


New-Century  Manifestations — New  Leaders — Spirit  of  the  Methodism 
of  the  South — Second  Methodist  Body  of  the  World — Property — 
Growth — Government  of  Law — Canada  and  Bishop  Soule — Laity 
Rights — Tobacco — African  Mission — Retirement  of  Bishop  Key — 
Bishop  Fitzgerald — Fraternal  Addresses — Japanese  Church — Prince 
Yun — Episcopal  and  Other  Elections — Consolidation  of  Missionary 
Boards  and  Societies — History  of  Church  Missions — 1910-1913. 

TWO  manifestations  marked  the  spirit  and  utterances  of 
the  Methodism  of  the  South  in  its  councils  and  assemblies 
during  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century.  These  were 
a  consciousness  of  power  in  its  life  and  organization  and  a 
frank,  if  still  cautious,  disposition  to  react  from  its  tradi- 
tional conservatism  in  matters  of  policy  and  administration . 
A  healthy  sense  of  power  always  begets  comfort  and  freedom 
in  action.  The  Church  in  the  South,  conscious  that  its  attitude 
was  no  longer  of  necessity  one  of  defense  and  self-preservation, 
began  to  look  cheerfully  toward  its  destiny  and  to  construct, 
both  as  to  legislative  and  administrative  ends,  a  program  cal- 
culated to  give  effectiveness  to  its  best  ideals  and  its  most 
catholic  sentiments.  In  this  there  was  no  denial  of  history, 
but  rather  the  truest  interpretation  of  it.  The  men  of  the  new 
generation  in  proving  true  to  themselves  were  only  true  to  the 
faith  and  teachings  of  the  men  whose  sons  they  were. 

The  sixteenth  General  Conference  of  the  Church,  South 
(being  the  thirty-first  since  1784),  which  met  in  the  city  of 
Asheville,  N.  C,  in  May,  1910,  was  expositive  of  these  dual 
qualities  of  the  newer  Methodism.  More  than  ever  before, 
perhaps,  the  minds  of  the  Church  lawmakers  were  informed 
beforehand  of  the  needs  of  legislation  and  also  of  the  course 
which  discussion  should  take  in  the  settlement  of  many  vexing 
questions  of  policy  and  legislation.  Perhaps  no  General  Con- 
ference held  in  the  South  ever  had  in  it  so  large  a  number  of 
young  and  middle-aged  men  experienced  and  seasoned  in  the 
work  of  legislation  and  debate.  A  large  proportion  had  served 
in  former  General  Conferences,  but  many  were  new.  Leaders 
in  this  body  whose  names  have  not  appeared  in  former  lists 
(262) 


Present-Day  Leaders — Distinct  Methodism . 


were:  W.  M.  Cox,  J.  M.  Dannelly,  J.  H.  O'Bryant,  F.  J.  Pretty- 
man,  E.  V.  Regester,  J.  B.  Cox,  E.  H.  Mowre,  Thomas  S.  Wheel- 
er, H.  S.  Shangle,  Ira  S.  Patterson,  L.  W.  Moore,  J.  P.  Hilbum, 
T.  C.  Schuler,  I.  P.  Martin,  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  T.  E.  Sharp,  A.  P. 
Lyons,  H.  B.  Johnston,  R.  W.  Hood,  J.  W.  Blackard,  I.  W. 
Cooper,  H.  W.  Featherstun,  O.  E.  Brown,  D.  B.  Price,  J.  B. 
Cochran,  E.  M.  Glenn,  Frank  W.  Brandon,  G.  W.  Read,  J.  N. 
Cole,  J.  E.  Dickey,  J.  T.  Christian,  B.  P.  Allen,  T.  W.  Lewis,  R. 
A.  Meek,  C.  N.  Harless,  R.  G.  Mood,  G.  S.  Hardy,  S.  R.  Hay,  O. 
E.  Godard,  J.  A.  Batchelor,  L.  F.  Beaty,  M.  B.  Kelley,  T.  D. 
Ellis,  J.  H.  Scruggs,  J.  W.  Moore,  James  Kilgore,  George  S. 
Sexton,  H.  K.  Boyer,  G.  H.  Detwiler,  U.  V.  W.  Darlington,  and 
R.  C.  Moorehead.  Of  laymen  active  in  this  Conference  were: 
T.  D.  Samford,  R.  E.  Stackhouse,  J.  H.  Reynolds,  Victor  P. 
Moses,  G.  F.  Mellen,  E.  C.  O'Eear,  M.  E.  Lawson,  William  T. 
Sanders,  J.  G.  Brown,  J.  H.  Southgate,  John  D.  Walker,  John 
N.  Holder,  John  T.  Duncan,  J.  A.  McCord,  James  D.  Barbee, 
W.  Erskine  Williams,  D.  H.  Linebaugh,  H.  N.  Snyder,  W.  B. 
Stubbs,  H.  J.  Fulbright,  L.  L.  Jester. 

As  supporting  the  observation  concerning  the  changed  at- 
titude in  some  important  degree  of  the  thought  and  sentiment 
of  the  Methodism  of  the  South,  a  lengthy  paragraph  from  the 
Episcopal  Address  read  at  this  General  Conference  may  be 
cited : 

As  a  distinct  Methodism,  while  prayerful  observers  of  what  other 
Churches  are  enterprising  and  doing,  we  have  never  been  content  to  be 
mere  imitators  or  followers.  The  power  of  the  initiative  has  led  us 
to  make  important  changes  in  our  polity  when  it  seemed  wise.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  thus  far  is  the  only  Methodism  that 
has  corrected  the  confessed  weakness  of  making  a  General  Conference 
the  sole  judge  of  the  constitutionality  of  its  own  acts,  thus  leaving  un- 
limited authority  unchecked  by  responsibility.  We  first  dispensed  with 
a  fixed  probation  of  six  months,  an  example  followed  forty  years  after- 
wards by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The  most  complete  example 
of  lay  representation,  alike  in  the  Annual  and  General  Conference,  was 
set  by  us  both  to  the  British  Wesleyans  and  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  which  they  have  followed  only  in  part  even  after  many  years. 
Our  General  Conference  was  the  first  to  establish  training  schools  for 
missionaries — one  under  the  Woman's  Foreign  Board  and  the  other 
under  the  Parent  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  The  work  of  women  as 
promoters  of  parsonage-building,  early  recognized  by  our  General  Con- 


204 


History  of  Methodism. 


ference  as  a  distinct  society,  has  since  become  the  Woman's  Home 
Mission  Society,  with  its  scores  of  deaconesses  and  missionaries.  We 
were  the  first,  through  our  Board  of  Missions,  to  recognize  and  wel- 
come the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  which  has  given  new  in- 
spiration to  all  the  Churches.  We  are  seeking  to  adapt  our  work  in 
congested  sections  of  our  large  cities  by  the  aid  of  institutional 
Churches  and  religious  settlements.  Hospitals  under  the  auspices 
of  our  Church  have  been  established,  or  are  being  erected,  in  several  of 
our  larger  centers.  We  are  studying  the  confessed  mistakes  of  other 
Churches  in  the  adjustment  of  their  several  Home  and  Foreign  Boards 
of  Missions,  so  as  to  secure  for  ourselves  what  is  best  adapted  to  our 
peculiar  needs.  But  while  seeking  to  make  full  proof  of  our  ministry 
as  a  Church,  we  are  not  unmindful  that  our  very  growth  in  numbers 
brings  the  responsibility  of  an  increasingly  efficient  ministry.  Our 
work  needs  not  to  be  less  evangelistic,  but  more  intensive,  to  develop 
our  new  converts  and  to  make  them  workmen  that  shall  not  be  ashamed, 
alike  as  students  and  teachers  of  the  Word  of  God.  By  higher  stand- 
ards of  admission  and  by  more  thorough  preparation  of  our  preachers 
and  their  deeper  consecration,  we  are  seeking  the  greater  efficiency  of 
our  preachers,  who  must  minister  to  our  growing  and  devout  laymen 
who  are  asking  to  be  led  to  do  better  and  greater  things  for  the  Lord. 

In  this  happy  period  the  Ohurch  in  the  South  not  only  found 
itself  the  second  largest  Methodist  body  in  the  world,  but  the 
third  largest  Protestant  body  on  the  continent.  Its  net  in- 
crease for  the  four  years  then  closing  was  207,754,  an  increase 
larger  than  the  whole  membership  of  very  many  of  the  active 
and  reputable  denominations  of  the  continent.  The  entire  mem- 
bership of  the  Church  at  that  time,  not  including  11,570  travel- 
ing and  local  preachers,  was  1,822,402,  which  was  half  a  mil- 
lion more  than  all  the  Methodists  on  the  two  continents  of 
Europe  and  Australia.  Including  the  membership  of  the  Col- 
ored Methodist  Church,  the  Southern  Church  was  the  largest 
Protestant  denomination  in  the  Western  world,  excepting  only 
its  great  Methodist  sister  in  the  North.  The  number  of  travel- 
ing preachers  was  reported  to  be  7,018;  local  preachers.  4,952. 

The  property  holdings  of  the  Church  were  reported  to  total 
$75,000,000,  including  churches,  parsonages,  schools,  orphan- 
ages, hospitals,  publishing  houses,  endowments,  and  loan  funds. 
During  the  quadrennium  there  had  been  given  for  education, 
including  plants,  equipment,  and  endowments,  the  sum  of  f3,- 
075,000.  For  Church  extension  the  sum  of  f&37,734  bad  been 
donated,  aiding  a  total  of  2,250  Churches.    During  the  same 


Southern  Strength — Law. 


period  there  had  been  a  notable  increase  in  resources  in  for- 
eign missions  under  the  six  different  flags,  other  than  that  of 
America,  where  the  Church  was  laboring.  In  these  fields  25,- 
210  members  were  reported,  and  there  had  been  an  increase  of 
181  churches  and  chapels.  The  entire  value  of  property  in  the 
foreign  mission  field  approximated  three  million  dollars. 

It  was  recalled  with  satisfaction  that  Methodism  has  always 
been  strongest  in  the  South.  It  was  the  field  of  the  greatest 
labors  of  Asbury  and  McKendree.  From  the  South  Jesse  Lee 
carried  the  gospel  of  Methodism  to  New  England.  In  return 
the  Methodism  of  the  South  had  received  the  services  of 
Stephen  Olin,  Joshua  Soule,  Linus  Parker,  E.  E.  Wiley,  Jef- 
ferson Hamilton,  and  scores  of  others.  For  sixteen  years  after 
the  division,  in  1844,  each  Church  increased  to  the  number  of 
about  three  hundred  thousand  members;  but  despite  the  great 
loss  of  membership  during  the  period  of  the  war,  the  Southern 
Connection  maintained  its  phenomenal  record.  From  1866  to 
1890  the  gain  in  membership  was  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
per  cent,  while  the  gain  of  the  Church  in  the  North  was  eighty- 
one  per  cent.  The  Church  was  now  preaching  the  gospel  in 
German,  French,  Italian,  Bohemian,  and  Spanish. 

It  was  also  thankfully  noted  that  the  Church  of  the  South 
stood  for  a  government  of  law.  This  fact  came  inevitably  to 
the  surface  in  the  midst  of  discussions  concerning  the  funda- 
mental canons  of  Methodism  and  the  spirit  of  the  new  age  to 
which  this  narrative  has  already  adverted.  The  traditional 
confidences  and  friendship  subsisting  between  Bishop  McKen- 
dree and  Bishop  Soule,  the  latter  the  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  former  its  strongest  defender,  were  gratefully  re- 
called. Perhaps  it  is  this  reverence  for  law,  this  veneration  for 
written  precedents,  that  has  deterred  Southern  Methodist  lead- 
ers from  too  readily  giving  themselves  to  the  wholesale  mak- 
ing of  a  Constitution.  The  Restrictive  Rules  of  1808  are  recog- 
nized as  being  basic,  but  beyond  that  there  has  existed  in  all 
minds  a  wholesome  question  as  to  what  classification  should 
be  given  other  parts  of  the  inherited  Methodist  code. 

After  the  study  conducted  through  the  foregoing  paragraph, 
a  special  pertinency  will  be  discovered  in  the  following  resolu- 
tion adopted  by  the  General  Conference: 


206 


History  of  Methodism. 


Resolved,  That  the  College  of  Bishops  be  requested  to  carry  out  more 
fully  than  heretofore  the  requirement  of  the  Discipline  which  provides 
that  each  point  of  law  decided  by  the  College  of  Bishops  and  published 
to  the  Church  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  syllabus  of  the  case.  Without 
such  a  syllabus,  giving  a  brief  statement  of  the  facts  and  the  points  of 
law  decided,  it  is  at  times  impossible  to  understand  the  scope  of  the  deci- 
sion rendered. 

Not  less  pertinent  was  an  action  authorizing  the  bishops  to 
appoint  a  committee  of  three  to  codify  and  annotate  the  Book 
of  Discipline  before  another  edition  should  be  issued.  The 
work  of  this  committee  has  greatly  facilitated  the  use  of  the 
law  book  of  the  Connection.  A  resolution  was  also  adopted 
calling  for  a  commission  on  the  Constitution.  This  action  was 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Episcopacy.  As  an  outcome  of 
this  and  other  actions  to  the  same  intent,  much  work  has  been 
given  to  the  task  of  bringing  forward  the  fundamental  ele- 
ments in  the  Church's  law ;  but,  as  already  explained,  no  <le 
terminative  consideration  has  yet  been  given  to  the  results. 

On  the  seventh  day  of  the  session  H.  M.  Du  Bose,  of  the 
Mississippi  Conference,  on  behalf  of  the  family  of  Bishop  Hol- 
land N.  McTyeire,  presented  to  Dr.  Young,  the  Canadian  fra- 
ternal delegate,  the  original  of  an  address  from  the  Wesleyan 
Church  of  Canada  in  1842  to  Bishop  Soule,  who  was  that  year 
fraternal  delegate  to  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  England. 
This  address  begged  him  to  negotiate  for  a  composing  of  the 
differences  between  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  England  and 
the  Conference  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  It  is  believed  that 
this  mission  was  frankly  undertaken  by  the  great  Bishop  and 
that  his  mediation  issued  in  a  satisfactory  understanding,  as 
the  records  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  for  1843  show  that  in 
a  large  measure  the  difficulties  had  been  overcome. 

The  discussion  which  had  for  some  years  developed  around 
the  issue  known  as  "Laity  Rights,"  or  the  admission  of  women 
into  the  General  Conference,  took  definite  shape  in  a  number 
of  memorials,  petitions,  and  resolutions  from  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  from  various  auxiliary  societies, 
from  some  District  Conferences,  and  from  a  large  number  of 
individual  signers  of  petitions.  In  addition  to  these  requests, 
it  was  asked  that  women  be  permitted  to  fill  the  office  of 


Laity  Rights — Ttibacco — A  frica 


207 


steward,  Sunday  school  superintendent,  trustee,  secretary  of 
Church  Conference,  and  the  presidency  of  Epworth  Leagues, 
and  that  by  virtue  of  that  fact  they  be  members  of  the  Quar- 
terly Conference. 

These  overtures  were  carefully  considered  by  the  Committee 
on  Revisals,  who  made  the  following  report,  which,  upon  being 
read,  was  adopted  by  the  General  Conference: 

While  we  fully  realize  the  devotion  of  our  women  to  the  Church 
and  recognize  the  great  work  which  they  are  now  doing  in  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  yet  we  do  not  believe  that  the  fullness  of  time 
has  come  when,  in  fairness  to  them  and  in  justice  to  the  Church,  we  can 
put  upon  them  the  official  burdens  of  the  Church  so  long  and  so  right- 
fully borne  by  men. 

The  right  or  wrongness  of  the  use  of  tobacco  by  the  clergy 
of  the  Church  has  long  been  an  issue  in  American  Methodism. 
Several  decades  ago  its  use  was  strictly  interdicted  by  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Church  in  the  North.  This  inter- 
dict did  not  apply  to  ministers  then  in  the  traveling  connec- 
tion, but  did  apply  to  those  entering  thereafter.  In  this  way 
a  generation  of  abstainers  has  been  produced.  The  Southern 
Church,  in  keeping  with  its  traditions,  was  slower  than  was 
its  Northern  sister  to  adopt  this  regulation;  but  at  this  time 
the  following  canonical  order  was  by  the  requisite  vote  put  in 
the  Discipline — namely: 

If  79.  Ans.  11.  Before  the  ballot  for  the  license  of  an  applicant  is  taken, 
either  in  the  District  Conference  or  Licensing  Committee,  he  shall  be 
urged  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  tobacco  for  reasons,  at  least,  of  min- 
isterial prudence. 

If  148.  Ans.  4.  The  Committee  on  Admissions  shall  urge  all  applicants 
for  admission  on  trial  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  tobacco  for  reasons,  at 
least,  of  ministerial  prudence. 

This  action  foreshadowed  a  more  decided  and  stringent  one 
which  was  taken  four  years  later.  At  that  time  the  pledge  of 
abstinence  from  the  use  of  tobacco  on  the  part  of  applicants 
for  admission  into  the  itinerancy  was  made  mandatory. 

The  Committee  on  Missions  reported  to  the  Conference  a 
resolution,  which  was  adopted,  to  the  effect  that  the  Mission- 
ary Secretaries  be  instructed  to  confer  with  a  commission  from 
the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  on  the  matter  of 


268 


History  of  Methodism. 


opening  a  mission  in  Africa.  One  of  the  secretaries  was  au- 
thorized to  visit  Africa,  to  study  the  conditions  there  with  ref- 
erence to  the  selection  of  one  or  more  eligible  sites  for  the  loca- 
tion of  mission  stations.  It  was  also  directed  that  "specials" 
be  taken  to  secure  the  necessary  funds  for  the  prosecution  of 
this  enterprise.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Church's  mis- 
sion in  Africa. 

Following  a  precedent  set  by  many  of  his  predecessors  in 
office.  Bishop  Joseph  S.  Key.  being  greatly  advanced  in  years 
and  infirm  in  strength,  asked  to  be  relieved  from  the  active 
duties  of  his  office.  "My  busy  life,"  he  said,  "has  passed  so 
swiftly  and  silently  that,  without  realizing  it.  I  find  myself 
to-day  nearing  eighty-one  years  of  age.  My  health  is  perfect, 
thank  God.  My  head  is  clear.  My  heart  is  warm,  and  my  love 
for  and  interest  in  our  beloved  Church  grow  with  the  years. 
But  I  realize  that  a  Methodist  bishop  at  eighty  years  is  an  un- 
reliable asset.   The  calendar  is  inexorable/' 

Bishop  Key  is  himself  the  son  of  a  traveling  preacher  and 
was  born  in  a  parsonage.  His  service  in  the  Church  has  been 
long  and  faithful.  No  trust  committed  to  him  has  ever  been 
either  betrayed  or  neglected.  His  life  and  experience  have 
been  a  blessing  to  thousands.  His  preaching  has  ever  been  with 
power  and  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit.  His  life  is  going  out 
in  sunshine  and  cheered  by  the  blessings  of  the  whole  Church. 
In  granting  to  Bishop  Key  the  release  that  he  asked,  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  expressed  its  thankfulness  for  his  long,  hon- 
orable, and  useful  service.  At  the  time  of  his  retirement  the 
Texas  Conferences  united  in  presenting  to  him  a  handsome 
loving  cup  as  a  testimonial  of  the  peculiar  love  which  was  felt 
for  him  by  the  Methodists  in  the  great  State  of  Texas. 

Bishop  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  already  on  the  retired  list,  was  un- 
able to  attend  the  session  of  the  Conference.  The  Committee 
on  Fraternal  Correspondence  was,  therefore,  directed  to  send 
the  greetings  of  the  Conference  to  the  venerable  and  beloved 
chief  pastor.  To  this  greeting  the  Bishop  sent  the  following 
response :  '-Permit  me  to  acknowledge  with  thankful  heart 
your  kindly  greeting,  with  a  prayer  that  the  God  of  our  fathers 
may  bless  every  member  of  your  body  and  guide  you  in  all  that 
you  say  and  do.    Let  me  add,  my  sky  is  clear  because  grace 


Bishop  Fitzgerald — Fraternal  Addresses. 


269 


abides  and  abounds."  The  service  of  Bishop  Fitzgerald  to  the 
Church  was  active  and  distinguished  through  many  years.  He 
was  born  in  North  Carolina.  Very  early  in  this  ministry  he 
responded  to  the  call  to  join  the  laborers  on  the  extreme  line 
of  Western  service.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  was  identi- 
fied with  the  work  in  California  as  a  member  of  the  Pacific 
Conference.  In  mining  communities,  in  the  churches  in  the 
cities,  and  as  editor  of  the  Conference  organ,  he  fully  kept  his 
vow  as  an  itinerant  and  was  always  the  trusted  leader  and 
adviser  of  his  brethren.  At  an  early  day  he  accepted  the  super- 
intendency  of  education  for  the  State,  and  it  was  during  his 
administration  that  the  University  of  California  was  founded 
at  Berkeley.  It  was  also  through  his  instrumentality  that  the 
distinguished  brothers  Le  Conte,  scholars  and  scientists,  were 
added  to  the  faculty  of  that  institution.  The  intimacy  between 
the  Bishop  and  Prof.  Joseph  Le  Conte,  probably  the  great- 
est American  physicist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  continued 
through  many  years.  In  1878  Dr.  Fitzgerald  was  elected  to 
the  editorship  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  in  which  office  he 
served  with  distinguished  ability  until  his  election  to  the  epis- 
copacy in  1890.  Bishop  Fitzgerald  was  both  prolific  and  suc- 
cessful as  an  author.  His  "California  Sketches"  became  a  clas- 
sic and  held  its  popularity  through  the  life  of  a  generation. 
The  titles  of  other  books  of  his  are :  "Christian  Growth,"  "The 
Epworth  League  Book,"  "Centenary  Cameos,"  "Life  of  Dr. 
Summers,"  "Life  of  J udge  Longstreet,"  "Life  of  Dr.  McFerrin," 
"Sunset  Views,"  and  else.  In  the  pulpit  he  was  not  ranked  as 
an  orator,  but  held  his  audience  with  a  conversational  style, 
pleasing,  instructive,  and  satisfying.  No  man  of  his  day  was 
more  beloved  in  the  Church.  His  death  occurred  on  August 
5,  1911. 

The  fraternal  addresses  at  this  session  of  the  General  Con- 
ference were  of  a  high  order,  and  several  of  them  produced  un- 
usual enthusiasm  and  ministered  to  a  widening  fraternal  feel- 
ing. The  Canadian  Methodist  Church  was  represented  by  the 
Rev.  W.  R.  Young,  D.D.  Referring  to  the  movement  for  or- 
ganic union  amongst  the  several  Protestant  bodies  of  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada,  Dr.  Young  said : 


270 


History  of  Methodism. 


To  surrender  our  connection  with  Methodist  doctrine,  polity,  customs, 
association,  and  traditions,  is  asking  a  good  deal.  Methodism  has  a  mis- 
sion, a  message  to  the  world,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  or  not  that 
special  mission  has  been  completed.  But  while  thus  expressing  myself, 
I  am  open  to  conviction.  If  in  the  great  work  of  nation-building  better 
results  can  be  secured  by  organic  union  than  without  it,  if  the  moral 
and  religious  character  of  Canadian  life  can  be  more  securely  safeguarded 
and  the  welfare  of  our  people  better  conserved  by  an  organic  union  than 
by  denominational  cooperation,  and  if  the  involution  be  greater  than  the 
evolution,  then  even  the  strongest  opponent  of  organic  union  will  be 
ready  to  make  the  sacrifice  and  join  heartily  in  expanding  the  moral  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  nation.  It  is  a  question  that  must  be  settled  from 
the  viewpoint  of  Christian  statesmanship  and  not  from  that  of  selfish 
interests,  sectional  feeling,  or  ecclesiastical  prejudice. 

The  representative  from  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  S.  Simon,  a  man  of  impressive 
personality,  ripened  in  thought,  and  giving  to  his  sermons  and 
discourses  the  flavor  of  a  rich  Christian  experience.  In  the 
course  of  his  fraternal  address  Dr.  Simon  reverted  to  the  fact 
of  an  increased  spirituality  and  evangelism  in  the  Church  of 
England.   He  said : 

The  wonderful  revival  of  religion  in  the  Church  of  England  has  told 
upon  the  upper  classes  in  a  marvelous  way.  The  man  who  does  not  prop- 
erly estimate  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in  religious  things  through 
the  organization  of  men,  as  we  call  it,  does  not  understand  England.  1 
have  heard  some  High-Church  preachers.  I  never  heard  better  preach- 
ers or  more  direct  invitations  to  sinners  who  were  perishing  than  from 
these  men,  and  they  are  getting  people  whom  we  cannot  get  at.  I  thank 
the  Lord  for  the  existence  of  the  man  who  can  get  at  the  men  that  I 
cannot.  And  there  has  come  upon  England  a  spirit  of  Christian  unity 
that  is  growing.   And  I  am  hopeful. 

The  fraternal  spirit  and  manifestations  of  the  session  reached 
their  climax  when  the  Rev.  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.I).,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Church,  read  his  address — read  it  in  such  a 
way  as  perhaps  no  other  living  man  could  and  with  such  effect 
as  a  read  address  has  seldom  x>roduced.  It  was  a  discussion 
of  the  practical  unity  possible  to  American  Methodism.  Per- 
haps no  utterance  listened  to  in  a  Southern  Conference  lias  so 
perceptibly  and  consciously  advanced  the  cause  of  Methodist 
fraternity.    Amongst  an  almost  countless  number  of  quotable 


Fraternal  Intercourse. 


271 


paragraphs  in  his  address,  the  following  may  be  selected  ;is 
typical : 

Divisions  among  Methodists  have  always  proceeded  along  mechanical 
lines.  We  have  disputed  about  names  and  foolish  questions  and  geneal- 
ogies and  fightings  about  the  law,  which  are  unprofitable  and  vain.  But 
the  spiritual  unity  of  Methodism  has  never  been  broken.  This  is  its 
seamless  robe,  which  it  would  be  sacrilege  to  rend  or  to  cast  lots  for. 
And  every  division  among  Methodists  to-day  is  an  anomaly;  it  is  a  con- 
tradiction of  that  unity  of  inner  spiritual  life  and  of  outer  spiritual 
activity  which  makes  us  Methodists,  which  we  receive  not  from  men, 
neither  were  we  taught  it;  but  it  came  to  us  through  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  In  the  presence  of  this  holiest  fact  of  Methodism  and  of 
the  holiest  law  of  unity  we  have  the  right  to  demand:  "What  God  hath 
joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder." 

The  Rev.  Naphtali  Luccock,  D.D.,  and  the  Hon.  J.  Frank 
Hanly  brought  to  the  Conference  the  greetings  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  The 
names  of  these  distinguished  men — the  first  a  pastor  of  almost 
unequaled  success  in  his  Connection,  the  second  the  ex-Gov- 
ernor of  a  great  commonwealth,  a  national  legislator,  and  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  leaders  of  prohibition — were  a  pledge 
beforehand  of  the  great  messages  which  they  delivered.  Two 
years  later  Dr.  Luccock  was  elevated  to  the  episcopacy  and 
was  fulfilling  the  measure  of  great  promise  in  his  selection, 
but  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  and  before  the  end  of  his  first 
quadrennium  he  was  called  to  the  Connection  of  the  skies.  In 
his  fraternal  address,  referring  to  a  peculiar  problem  of  the 
Southern  Church,  Dr.  Luccock  said: 

When  Maximilian  was  sent  to  Mexico,  Louis  Napoleon  explained  that 
one  purpose  of  the  expedition  was  the  settlement  of  the  Latin  question 
on  the  American  continent.  He  did  not  settle  it;  he  did  not  have  the 
right  formula.  God  sent  you  later  with  his  own  great  gospel  to  those 
nations  sitting  in  the  twilight,  to  help  solve  the  problems  of  sin  and 
salvation,  of  emancipation  and  enlightenment,  and  to  regulate  inci- 
dentally the  Latin  question  on  the  American  continent.  We  have  sent 
many  a  shout  to  heaven  for  your  triumph  in  Cuba  and  have  watched 
with  thrilling  interest  the  movement  of  your  flag  through  the  valley 
of  the  Amazon  and  across  the  map  of  Brazil. 

An  incident  of  unusual  interest  was  the  presence  at  the  Con- 
ference, the  introduction,  and  the  addresses  of  Bishop  Y.  Hon- 


272 


History  of  Methodism. 


da,  of  the  Japan  Methodist  Church,  and  the  Rev.  Minekitsu 
Hori,  the  fraternal  delegate  accredited  from  that  Church. 
Bishop  Hendrix  introduced  Bishop  Honda  as  the  "Asbury  of 
Japan."   Bev.  Mr.  Hori  said: 

Although  I  come  from  the  Nippon  Methodist  Church,  I  am  here  as 
one  born  in  your  Church  in  Japan  and  as  your  own  son  in  the  gospel. 
.  .  .  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  cannot  convey  in  full  how  our  new 
Church  feels  toward  you.  If  I  were  allowed  to  speak  in  my  own 
tongue,  I  would  be  able  to  express  our  thoughts  and  feeling  somewhat 
better.  It  is  very  fortunate  for  me  to  have  with  me  our  good  Bishop 
Honda,  who  will  speak  for  the  Church. 

Bishop  Honda  added : 

Whatever  may  be  our  present  organization,  we  are  your  children. 
The  independence  and  autonomy  of  the  Japanese  Church  were  one  un- 
avoidable result  of  the  union,  and  we  all  believe  it  was  the  best  means 
of  forwarding  the  kingdom  of  God  in  Japan.  Our  chief  aim  was  not 
autonomy  itself,  but  the  best  means  of  promoting  the  evangelization 
of  Japan. 

The  Committee  on  Missions  reported  to  the  Conference,  ex- 
pressing a  deep  sense  of  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  the 
successful  union  of  the  three  great  Methodisms  at  work  in  the 
Japanese  Empire.  The  committee  also  recommended  that  in 
the  case  of  Japanese  preachers  doing  missionary  work  in  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  the  same  privileges  be  granted 
in  connection  with  our  Conferences  that  are  granted  to  our 
missionaries  in  connection  with  the  Church  in  Japan,  and  that 
reciprocal  arrangements  be  adopted  under  which  ministers 
and  members  may  be  transferred.  The  growth  of  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church  has  been  most  encouraging.  At  the  close  of 
the  session  of  the  third  General  Conference  the  following  sta- 
tistical statement  was  made:  A  total  of  15,364  members,  a 
growth  of  2,909  since  the  last  General  Conference.  The  Sun- 
day schools  showed  a  total  of  28,438  officers  and  pupils,  or  a 
gain  of  1,204,  and  113  Epworth  League  Chapters  having  a 
membership  of  3,103,  a  gain  of  1,403.  But  the  most  strikiDg 
gain  was  reported  on  the  finance  sheets.  The  gifts  of  the 
Church  had  doubled  in  four  years,  growing  from  a  yearly  total 
of  |32,278  gold  in  1910  to  #63,548  in  1914.  When  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church  was  organized  there  were  but  sixteen  con- 


Asiatic  Churchmen — Prince  Yun. 


27.°, 


gregations  that  were  wholly  self-supporting.  At  the  time  of 
the  second  General  Conference  the  number  had  grown  to 
twenty.  The  last  report  showed  a  total  of  twenty-five.  In 
addition  to  these,  there  are  eighty  Churches  receiving  aid, 
sixty-eight  preaching  places,  and  a  total  of  ninety-six  other 
points  in  charge  of  missionaries — a  grand  total  of  two  hundred 
and  sixty-nine  places  from  which  Methodism  is  proclaiming 
the  gospel  in  the  Japanese  Empire. 

Besides  the  native  bishop  and  the  fraternal  delegate  from 
the  Asiatic  General  Conference,  there  was  present  Prince  T. 
H.  Yun,  of  Korea,  who  was  introduced  to  the  Conference  and 
received  with  marks  of  profound  sympathy  and  respect.  Prince 
Yun,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Imperial  Cabinet  of  the 
old  Korean  Empire,  was  a  graduate  of  a  Southern  Methodist 
school  and  was  then,  and  is  now,  in  the  ranks  of  the  local 
ministry  of  the  same  Church.  He  has  been  for  many  years  one 
of  the  most  enlightened,  cultivated,  and  beloved  men  of  the 
whole  Korean  race.  He  has  given  his  time,  his  talents,  and 
his  substance  to  the  planting  of  the  gospel  in  his  native  land. 
During  the  recent  Russo-Japanese  War  he  fell  under  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  provincial  Japanese  government  in  that  reor- 
ganized country.  It  was  charged  that  he  had  sympathized 
with,  and  abetted,  a  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  provin- 
cial governor,  the  representative  of  the  Japanese  Empire.  On 
this  charge  he  was  tried,  condemned,  and  sent  to  prison,  where 
he  remained  for  several  years.  His  case  aroused  the  sympathy 
of  all  civilized  peoples.  The  universal  belief  was  that  the 
charges  were  groundless  and  that  the  punishment  was  inflicted 
through  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  political  necessity.  The 
Japanese  government  finally  listened  to  the  protests  of  hu- 
manity and  the  recommendations  which  came,  more  or  less 
officially,  from  the  American  government  and  granted  his  re- 
lease. The  prisoner's  health  was  much  impaired  by  his  long 
confinement;  but  he  still  lives,  a  most  worthy  representative 
of  the  gospel  in  its  work  amongst  a  former  pagan  people. 

To  the  Conference  Dr.  Collins  Denny  and  Dr.  James  H.  Mc- 
Coy made  their  reports  as  fraternal  representatives  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
and  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  respectively.  Shortly 
18 


274 


History  of  Methodism. 


after  these  reports  the  two  brethren  were  elected  to  the  epis- 
copacy, together  with  the  Rev.  John  C.  Kilgo,  D.D.,  the  Rev. 
W.  B.  Murrah,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  W.  R.  Lambuth,  D.D.,  the  Rev. 
R.  G.  Waterhouse,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  E.  D.  Mouzon,  D.D. 
Bishop  Denny  early  achieved  distinction  as  a  pastor ;  but  being 
called  to  a  professorship  in  Vanderbilt  University,  he  showed 
that  his  education  and  preparation  peculiarly  fitted  him  for 
the  work  of  teaching.  During  his  incumbency  at  Vanderbilt 
he  was  for  a  number  of  years  Chairman  of  the  Book  Committee 
and  faithfully  and  successfully  administered  that  important 
trust.  Bishop  Kilgo  had  also  spent  a  number  of  years  in  the 
pastorate  before  entering  upon  the  responsible  duties  of  the 
presidency  of  Trinity  College,  which  institution  reached  its 
point  of  greatest  prosperity  under  his  administration.  Bishop 
Lambuth,  born  in  China,  showed  an  almost  prenatal  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  Christian  missions.  After  many  years  of  serv- 
ice on  the  mission  field,  he  was  made  Missionary  Secretary  and 
was  freely  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  living  missionary 
leaders.  Bishop  Murrah,  like  his  colleagues,  Bishops  Denny 
and  Kilgo,  had  been  first  a  pastor  and  had  then  entered  the 
work  of  education,  being  the  first  President  of  Millsaps  Col- 
lege, which  he  saw  grow  from  a  splendid  beginning  to  a  still 
more  splendid  maturity.  Bishop  Waterhouse  had  been  for  a 
number  of  years  successively  President  of  Emory  aud  Henry 
College,  an  institution  whose  history  is  inseparably  linked  with 
the  memory  of  Ephraim  E.  Wiley.  Bishop  Mouzon  had  given 
most  of  his  ministerial  life  to  the  pastorate,  but  at  the  time  of 
his  election  to  the  episcopacy  was  Dean  of  the  Theological  De- 
partment of  the  Southwestern  University.  Bishop  McCoy  had 
been  both  pastor  and  editor,  but  was  at  the  time  of  his  elec- 
tion President  of  Birmingham  College. 

Tn  the  connectional  elections  which  followed  this  election 
of  bishops  the  following  choices  were  made :  Publishing  Agents, 
D.  M.  Smith  and  A.  J.  Lamar;  Book  Editor  and  Editor  of  the 
Methodist  Review,  Gross  Alexander;  Editor  Christian  Advo- 
cate, Thomas  N.  Ivey;  Epworth  League  Secretary  and  Editor 
Epxoorth  Era,  F.  S.  Parker;  Editor  Sunday  School  Litera- 
ture, Edwin  B.  Chappell;  Secretary  Board  of  Missions.  W.  \V 


Unification  of  Mission  Boards. 


275 


Pinson;  Secretary  Board  of  Church  Extension,  W.  F.  Mc- 
Murry ;  Secretary  Board  of  Education,  James  E.  Dickey. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  General  Conference  of  1906 
appointed  a  commission  to  report  to  the  session  to  sit  four 
years  later  a  plan  for  the  unification  of  the  several  Missionary 
Societies  and  Boards  of  the  Church.  This  report,  as  adopted  at 
this  session,  settled  the  missionary  administration  of  the  Con- 
nection within  the  following  lines:  A  Board  was  established 
to  which  was  given  the  charge  of  foreign  missions  and  of  such 
home  missions  as  are  not  provided  for  by  the  Annual  Confer- 
ences. This  Board  was  empowered  to  carry  on  its  operations 
under  two  departments — viz.,  the  Department  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions and  the  Department  of  Home  Missions.  This  included 
the  woman's  work,  the  work  of  the  Educational  and  Editorial 
Secretaries,  and  whatever  other  connectional  missionary  plans 
were  then  extant.  The  Board  was  made  to  consist  of  a  Presi- 
dent, Vice  President,  a  General  Secretary,  two  Secretaries  for 
the  Department  of  Foreign  Missions,  two  Secretaries  for  the 
Department  of  Home  Missions,  two  Educational  Secretaries, 
two  Editorial  Secretaries  (one  of  which  Secretaries  in  each 
case  must  be  a  woman),  and  thirty  Managers,  of  whom  ten 
shall  be  preachers,  ten  laymen,  and  ten  women,  one  of  whom 
shall  be  the  President  of  the  Woman's  Missionary  Council. 
The  Bishops,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Board  and  an  Assistant 
Treasurer,  who  shall  be  a  woman,  the  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension,  and  the  President  of  the 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  were  made  ex  officio  members. 
This  Board  is  to  be  elected  quadrennially  by  the  General  Con- 
ference in  the  following  manner:  The  President,  Vice  Presi- 
dent, and  Managers,  on  nomination  of  the  Committee  on  Mis- 
sions; the  General  Secretary,  by  ballot  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence. The  members  elected  continue  in  office  until  their  suc- 
cessors are  chosen.  The  Board  fills  all  vacancies  that  may 
occur.  The  Secretaries  for  Foreign  Missions,  the  Secretaries 
for  Home  Missions,  the  Educational  Secretaries,  the  Editorial 
Secretaries,  and  the  Treasurer  and  Assistant  Treasurer  are 
elected  quadrennially  by  the  Board,  the  women  on  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  Woman's  Missionary  Council. 

The  Department  of  Foreign  Missions  is  empowered  to  ad- 


276 


History  of  Methodism. 


minister  all  missions  of  the  Church  in  foreign  lands  and  the 
funds  appropriated  for  the  same.  The  appointments  in  this 
field  are  subject  to  the  bishop  in  charge.  The  Department  of 
Home  Missions  is  empowered  to  administer  the  home  mission 
enterprises  of  the  Church,  except  that  the  Annual  Conference 
Boards  have  charge  of  all  missions  which  they  may  establish 
and  provide  for  within  their  Conference  bounds.  Candidates 
for  mission  work,  the  deaconess  work,  are  accepted  by  and 
under  the  direction  of  this  department. 

The  Woman's  Missionary  Council,  referred  to  above,' is  thus 
constituted:  The  women  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  conduct  missionary  work  through  an  organization 
known  as  the  Missionary  Council,  having  a  Home  and  a  For- 
eign Department.  Its  duty  is  to  develop  missionary  work 
among  women  and  children  in  accordance  with  a  policy  of  the 
Board  of  Missions.  It  consists  of  a  President,  four  Vice  Presi- 
dents, two  or  more  Secretaries,  two  Recording  Secretaries,  and 
a  Corresponding  Secretary,  or  alternate,  of  both  the  Wom- 
an's Foreign  and  Home  Mission  Societies  of  each  Annual  Con- 
ference. The  Secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  Assistant 
Treasurer,  and  the  women  who  are  members  of  the  Board  of 
Missions  are  ex  officio  members  of  the  Woman's  Missionary 
Council.  This,  in  general,  is  an  outline  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion under  which  the  missionary  operations  of  the  Church  are 
at  present  being  carried  on.  It  is  conceded  that  its  adjust- 
ments are  not  perfect,  and  frequent  discussion  has  looked  into 
the  direction  of  modifying  its  details. 

The  above  recital  suggests  the  propriety  of  appending  here 
an  account  of  the  missionary  enterprises  of  the  Church  since 
the  beginning.  The  germ  of  the  missionary  movement  in  all 
the  American  Methodist  Churches  is  traced  to  the  form  for 
solicitation  of  funds  for  poor  charges  and  the  opening  up  of 
the  work  in  the  West  by  Bishop  Asbury  as  early  as  1812.  In 
1819  there  was  organized  in  New  York  City  what  has  always 
been  known  as  the  Parent  Missionary  Society.  This  Society 
resulted  from  a  spontaneous  missionary  interest,  and  not 
through  Conference  action.  William  McHenry.  Enoch  George, 
"Robert  R.  Roberts.  Nathan  Bangs,  and  Joshua  Soule  were 
active  movers  in  the  organization  or  became  connected  with  it 


First  Missionary  Societies. 


277 


at  an  early  stage  of  its  history.  The  motto  of  the  movement 
was  the  sending  of  the  gospel  to  the  regions  abroad  as  well  as 
to  needy  places  in  the  home  field.  It  is  surprising  to  read  that 
it  met  with  strong  opposition,  due  to  a  preference  for  the  home 
field.  Joshua  Soule  said  when  the  opposition  was  greatest : 
"The  time  will  come  when  every  man  who  assisted  in  the  or- 
ganization of  this  Society  and  persevered  in  the  undertaking 
will  consider  it  one  of  the  most  -honorable  connections  of  his 
life."  Soon  after  this  the  Churches  began  to  organize  auxiliary 
societies.  The  first  such  auxiliary  was  composed  of  women  and 
called  "The  Female  Missionary  Society  in  the  State  of  New 
York."  The  next  society  was  organized  by  a  company  of  young 
men.  The  Episcopal  Address  at  the  General  Conference  of 
1820  indorsed  these  related  movements  and  said:  "Methodism 
itself  is  a  missionary  system.  Yield  to  missionary  spirit,  and 
you  yield  the  lifeblood  of  the  cause."  Acting  upon  the  address, 
the  General  Conference  organized  the  Society,  and  from  that 
time  forward  it  was  no  longer  known  as  the  New  York  So- 
ciety, but  as  "The  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church."  The  Annual  Conferences  very  quickly  caught 
step  with  the  movement,  and  Bishop  Soule's  words  had  an 
earlier  verification  than  he  had  dreamed. 

The  first  work  seriously  undertaken  was  amongst  the  col- 
ored people  on  the  plantations.  Soon  after  this  Bishop  Capers 
became  identified  with  this  particular  branch  of  the  work  and 
justly  acquired  the  title  of  "Founder  of  the  Missions  to  the 
Slaves," 

As  early  as  1843  the  first  missionary  was  sent  by  the  So- 
ciety to  a  foreign  field.  This  was  Melville  B.  Cox,  a  member 
of  the  Virginia  Conference,  who  went  to  the  newly  opened 
Black  Republic  of  Liberia.  He  was  supported  by  the  Young 
Men's  Missionary  Society  of  New  York. 

With  1844  the  Conferences  in  the  South  began  to  look  for 
new  missionary  fields  upon  which  to  bestow  their  labors,  it 
being  thought  wisest  and  best  not  to  seek  to  divide  the  field 
occupied  by  an  undivided  Methodism.  The  first  printed  re- 
port of  its  missionary  work  was  issued  by  the  Church  in  1846. 
Joshua  Soule  was  President  of  the  new  Society,  and  James  O. 
Andrew  was  one  of  its  Vice  Presidents.   Attention  had  at  first 


278 


History  of  Methodism. 


been  almost  wholly  given  to  home  missions — that  is,  to  foreign 
missions  in  the  home  field.  The  German  missions  in  New  Or- 
leans, Mobile,  Charleston,  and  Galveston  were  being  provided 
for.  The  items  of  the  report  were  as  follows:  To  the  people 
of  color,  Indians,  Texas  Mission,  German  Mission,  and  French 
Mission.  The  first  General  Conference  of  the  Southern  juris- 
diction, held  in  1S4G,  recommended  the  establishment;  of  a 
mission  in  the  middle  and  unoccupied  regions  of  the  Chinese 
Empire  and  also  in  France.  A  mission  to  West  Africa  was 
discussed.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  Bishop  Soule  himself 
proposed  to  go  to  Africa  in  1843,  but  was  prevented  from 
doing  so  by  the  excited  state  of  public  opinion  over  slavery. 
It  was  no  doubt  through  his  recommendation  that  the  early 
mission  to  Africa  was  planned. 

In  this  early  report  the  Board  recognized  the  cause  of  mis- 
sions as  the  first  great  enterprise  of  the  Church.  It  pledged 
the  South  to  a  full  and  faithful  performance  of  duty  and  de- 
clared that,  side  by  side  with  the  foremost,  its  motto  must  be 
to  take  position  in  the  strength  of  God  to  do  battle  in  the 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness.  A  missionary  constitution 
was  adopted  at  this  General  Conference,  the  first  article  of 
which  read:  "This  Association,  denominated  the  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  is  estab- 
lished for  the  purpose  of  affording  to  the  several  Annual  Con- 
ferences of  said  Church  the  facility  for  common  organization, 
under  the  control  of  the  General  Conference,  for  carrying  on 
their  missionary  labors  at  home  and  in  foreign  countries." 
This  constitution  contained  twelve  other  articles,  more  or  less 
similar  to  the  ones  now  in  force. 

At  the  first  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  a  foreign  mission  was  projected,  but  it  was  not 
until  1847  that  the  China  Mission  appears  in  the  Church's 
reports.  It  was  in  1848  that  the  first  missionaries  were  sent 
to  that  field.  Ten  years  later — that  is,  at  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1858 — the  bishops  in  their  address  recommended  im- 
portant changes  in  the  constitution  of  the  Missionary  Society. 
Some  of  their  suggestions  were  carried  in+o  immediate  effect; 
others  were  left  in  abeyance.  This  early,  however,  the  matter 
of  special  missionary  support  was  emphasized  in  a  resolution 


Two  Boards — Woman's  Work. 


279 


looking  to  responsibility  for  particular  fields  by  Annual  Con- 
ferences. 

As  early  as  1859  the  annual  reports  of  the  Mission  Board 
made  distinction  between  foreign  and  domestic  missions,  Con- 
ference missions  being  designated  as  domestic  and  distin- 
guished from  Colored,  Indian,  German,  and  China,  which  were 
classified  under  the  head  of  foreign.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  the  missionary  operations  of  the  Church  were  sadly  de- 
moralized as  a  consequence  of  the  War  between  the  States. 
The  Episcopal  Address  of  1866  said:  "Our  missionary  work, 
once  the  glory  of  our  Church,  has  been  well-nigh  ruined."  The 
General  Conference  which  met  in  this  year  established  a  con- 
nectional  Domestic  Mission  Board.  The  entire  section  in  the 
Discipline  on  foreign  missions  was  substituted  by  a  new  con- 
stitution, which  gave  all  home  missions  into  the  hands  of  the 
Domestic  Board.  One-tenth  of  all  the  mission  funds  raised  in 
the  Annual  Conferences  was  to  go  to  this  Board.  Each  An- 
nual Conference  was  to  organize  an  auxiliary  Board.  Dr.  E. 
W.  Sehon  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Board,  and 
Dr.  John  B.  McFerrin  was  named  as  Secretary  of  the  Do- 
mestic Board.  As  we  have  seen,  this  arrangement  lasted  for 
but  four  years.  The  experiment  was  unsatisfactory,  and  the 
next  General  Conference  returned  to  the  old  plan. 

The  movement  for  the  organization  of  a  Woman's  Auxiliary, 
or  a  Woman's  Board,  began  as  early  as  1874,  but  the  action 
was  not  consummated  until  the  General  Conference  of  1878. 
This  consummation,  with  other  advanced  legislation,  was  the 
token  of  a  new  interest  and  a  new  opportunity.  A  remarkable 
increase  in  the  missionary  income  of  the  Boards  was  immedi- 
ately chronicled,  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  being  the  ex- 
cess for  the  first  quadrennium.  In  1890  the  General  Confer- 
ence revised  the  constitution  of  the  Woman's  Society  and  au- 
thorized the  organization  of  a  Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home 
Mission  Society,  to  be  operated  under  a  distinct  constitution. 
A  forward  step  was  taken  when,  in  1894,  the  General  Confer- 
ence authorized  the  election  of  Missionary  Secretaries  in  the 
Annual  Conferences.  These  Secretaries  have  been  of  great 
service,  not  only  in  putting  the  work  of  the  Boards  before  the 
people,  but  in  the  way  of  a  general  and  an  effective  missionary 


2ND 


History  of  Methodism. 


evangelism.  By  the  year  190G  the  Connection  was  ready  for  a 
new  step,  and  the  General  Conference  authorized  that  these 
Secretaries  be  called  together  annually  in  a  conference  for  the 
discussion  of  missionary  themes  and  the  opening  up  of  new 
missionary  plans.  A  later  act  of  legislation  put  candidates 
for  city  mission  work  on  the  same  basis  as  candidates  for 
work  in  the  foreign  field,  an  examination  as  to  fitness  being 
required  in  each  case.  The  same  rule  as  to  tenure  of  service 
also  was  made  to  apply  to  each. 

The  following  sketch  will  give  a  view  of  the  official  person- 
nel of  the  Board  since  its  organization :  In  1840  Rev.  Edmund 
W.  Sehon  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  but 
declined  the  office,  and  Rev.  Edward  Stevenson  was  elected.  In 
18G0  Dr.  Sehon  was  elected  and  held  the  office  until  1800,  when 
the  General  Conference  established  a  Board  of  Domestic  Mis 
sions  and  a  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  Rev.  John  B.  Mc- 
Ferrin,  D.D.,  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Domestic- 
Missions  and  Dr.  Sehon  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  In  1870  the  Boards  were  united,  and  Dr.  McFerrin 
was  elected  Secretary  and  held  the  office  eight  years.  He  was 
elected  Book  Agent  in  1878,  and  Rev.  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.,  was 
elected  Secretary.  Dr.  Wilson  was  elected  bishop  in  1882,  and 
Rev.  R.  A.  Young  wras  made  Missionary  Secretary.  In  1886  Rev. 
I.  G.  John  was  elected  Secretary  and  held  the  position  two 
terms.  In  1894  the  General  Conference  decided  to  elect  two 
Secretaries,  and  Rev.  H.  C.  Morrison,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  W.  R. 
Lambuth,  D.D.,  were  chosen.  In  1898  Dr.  Morrison  was  elected 
bishop,  and  the  new  Secretaries  were  Dr.  W.  R.  Lambuth  and 
Dr.  J.  H.  Pritchett.  In  1902  the  General  Conference  returned 
to  the  old  plan  of  one  Secretary,  and  Dr.  Lambuth  was  chosen. 
Dr.  Seth  Ward  was  chosen  Assistant  Secretary  by  the  Board. 
In  1906  Dr.  Lambuth  was  reelected  Secretary,  and  the  Board 
chose  W.  W.  Pinson  Assistant  Secretary,  Rev.  John  R.  Nel- 
son Assistant  Secretary  for  the  Home  Department,  and  Rev. 
E.  F.  Cook  Educational  Secretary.  After  the  organization  of 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  Mr.  W.  B.  Stubbs  was 
made  Secretary  of  that  department. 

The  officiary  of  the  Board  for  the  years  of  1910-14  was  as 
follows:  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson.  President:  Bishop  W.  R.  Lam- 


Missionary  Officials — Wives  of  Missionaries.  281 


birth,  Vice  President;  Rev.  W.  W.  Pinson,  D.D.,  Secretary; 
Rev.  Ed  F.  Cook,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  J.  B.  Cobb,  Secretaries  of 
Foreign  Department;  Rev.  John  M.  Moore,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  K. 
W.  MacDonell,  Secretaries  of  Home  Department;  Rev.  E.  II. 
Rawlings,  D.D.,  and  Miss  Mabel  Head,  Secretaries  of  Edu- 
cational Department;  Rev.  G.  B.  Winton,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  A. 
L.  Marshall,  Editorial  Secretaries;  Mr.  J.  D.  Hamilton,  Treas- 
urer, and  Mrs.  F.  H.  E.  Ross,  Assistant  Treasurer;  Rev.  C. 
F.  Reid,  D.D.,  Secretary  of  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement. 
For  1914-18  the  officiary  stands  as  follows:  John  R.  Pepper, 
President;  Bishop  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Vice  President;  Rev.  W. 
W.  Pinson,  D.D.,  General  Secretary;  Rev.  Ed  F.  Cook,  D.D., 
and  Miss  Mabel  Head,  Secretaries  of  Foreign  Department ; 
Rev.  John  M.  Moore,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  R.  W.  MacDonell,  Sec- 
retaries of  Home  Department ;  Rev.  E.  H.  Rawlings,  D.D.,  and 
Mrs.  H.  R.  Steele,  Educational  Secretaries;  Mr.  R.  B.  Eleazer 
and  Mrs.  E.  B.  Chappell,  Editorial  Secretaries;  Mr.  J.  D. 
Hamilton,  Treasurer,  and  Mrs.  F.  H.  E.  Ross,  Assistant  Treas- 
urer. Upon  the  death  of  Dr.  Reid,  Rev.  E.  H.  Rawlings,  D.D., 
became  Secretary  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement. 

The  fact  that  for  thirty-four  years  previous  to  1878  the  women 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  had  no  organized 
mission  work  is  accounted  for  in  the  disturbed  social  and  po- 
litical condition  of  the  country  then  prevailing.  But  notwith 
standing  this  lack,  the  influence  of  women  was  much  felt  in 
the  missionary  efforts  of  that  period.  The  wives  of  the  mis- 
sionaries to  China — Mrs.  Cunnyngham,  Mrs.  Lambuth,  Mrs. 
Belton,  and  Mrs.  Allen — not  only  gave  their  husbands  loyal 
sympathy,  but  added  wise  and  unselfish  labors  to  the  general 
cause.  Mrs.  Cunnyngham  learned  both  to  speak  and  to  write 
the  Chinese  language.  She  then  translated  several  books  into 
Chinese  for  the  use  of  native  women.  Beginning  with  her  own 
servants,  she  formed  a  class  and  later  started  in  her  own  house 
a  school  for  girls.  Mrs.  Lambuth  was  not  less  interested  in  the 
womanhood  of  China.  A  class  gathered  by  her  became  the 
prosperous  native  institution  long  known  as  the  Clopton 
School. 

The  work  and  success  of  the  women  in  the  Church,  North, 
greatly  stimulated  the  purpose  of  their  sisters  in  the  South. 


282 


History  of  Methodism. 


In  18G9  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  that 
Church  was  organized  at  Boston.  A  local  society  had  long 
existed  in  certain  Baltimore  congregations.  Mrs.  Lavinia  Kel- 
ley,  the  mother  of  Dr.  D.  C.  Kelley,  was  the  first  woman  in  the 
Southern  Church  to  seek  to  promote  the  efforts  of  Christian 
women  for  heathen  women.  Her  work  was  first  carried  on 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Lebanon  Circuit,  Tennessee  Confer- 
ence. Her  society  was  pledged  to  help  in  the  support  of  Mrs. 
Lambuth's  school  in  China.  She  was  able  to  secure  subscrip- 
tions for  nine  scholarships,  when  her  noble  endeavors  were  put 
to  an  end  by  the  war  of  18G1-G5.  Eleven  years  later,  in  1872, 
Mrs.  Kelley  renewed  her  self-imposed  labors  for  Chinese  wom- 
en. At  that  time  her  residence  was  in  Nashville;  but  though 
her  field  was  thus  widened,  the  newness  of  the  work  and  the 
stress  of  the  times  made  progress  slow.  The  first  organization 
was  effected  at  McKendree  Church  in  1873.  Besides  Mrs.  Kel- 
ley, only  three  women  had  responded  to  the  call — namely,  Mrs. 
D.  H.  McGavock,  Mrs.  T.  D.  Fite,  and  Miss  Lucie  Ross.  This 
is  declared  to  have  been  the  first  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  organized  in  the  Connection.  But  in  this  same  year  the 
cause  had  a  more  prophetic  and  determined  beginning  in  a 
movement  in  the  Trinity  congregation  in  Baltimore.  Mrs. 
Juliana  Ha}Tes,  a  woman  marked  from  the  outset  to  be  the 
leader  of  this  cause,  provoked  the  local  Home  Mission  So- 
ciety to  begin  foreign  work.  Thus  the  fruitful  connectional 
plant  sprang  from  two  separate  and  faith-nourished  roots,  to 
become  the  effective  ministry  which  it  is  seen  to  be  to-day.  From 
its  small  beginning  the  Nashville  Society  grew  to  important 
proportions.  Its  object,  as  stated  in  the  constitution,  was  "to 
engage  and  unite  Christian  women  in  the  work  of  sending  the 
word  of  God  to  the  foreign  mission  fields  of  our  Church  and 
to  provide  for  the  Christian  education  of  girls  in  those  fields." 
From  the  inception  of  their  work  the  women  have  placed  em- 
phasis on  the  subject  of  Christian  education. 

The  cumulative  results  of  their  work  stirred  the  women  to 
great  enthusiasm.  Letters  from  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Lambuth  read 
like  chapters  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Many  homes  in 
the  Church  were  permeated  with  missionary  sentiment.  Wom- 
en in  many  congregations  planned  to  organize  missionary  so- 


Organization  of  Woman's  Board.  288 


cieties.  A  memorial  from  the  Nashville  Society  went  up  to  the 
General  Conference  of  1874  asking  authorization  for  a  con- 
nectional  organization.  Left  upon  a  crowded  calendar,  the 
paper  was  never  acted  upon.  Undaunted  by  their  failure,  the 
women  went  forward,  collecting  funds  and  sending  them  to 
the  workers  on  the  foreign  fields.  In  1877  Bishop  Marvin, 
with  his  traveling  companion,  Dr.  Hendrix,  returned  from  the 
mission  stations  in  Eastern  Asia  and  made  urgent  appeals  for 
a  general  enlistment  of  women  in  the  work  of  missions.  Many 
other  leaders  of  the  Church  joined  their  voices  to  this  appeal. 
Confident  that  the  General  Conference  of  1808  would  authorize 
organization,  the  women  went  forward  with  their  work,  even  to 
the  calling  for  volunteer  missionaries  to  be  sent  out  when  this 
authorization  should  be  given.  The  General  Conference  acted 
promptly  and  decisively.  The  organization  was  effected  May 
23,  1878,  and  was  known  as  the  Woman's  Missionary  Society. 
The  plan  called  for  auxiliaries  in  the  several  Conferences,  and 
the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  each  auxiliary,  in  connection 
with  the  Executive  Committee,  formed  a  legislative  body  known 
as  the  General  Executive  Association.  The  officers  of  the  con- 
nectional  Society,  appointed  by  the  bishops,  were:  President, 
Mrs.  Juliana  Hayes;  Vice  Presidents,  Mrs.  Robert  Paine,  Mrs. 
George  F.  Pierce,  Mrs.  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  Mrs.  W.  M.  Wight- 
man,  Mrs.  E.  M.  Marvin,  Mrs.  David  S.  Doggett,  Mrs.  H.  N. 
McTyeire,  Mrs.  John  C.  Keener;  Corresponding  Secretary, 
Mrs.  D.  H.  McGavock;  Treasurer,  Mrs.  James  Whitworth. 
Twenty-three  Managers  were  appointed  from  the  Church  at 
large.  Mrs.  McGavock,  Mrs.  Hayes,  and  Mrs.  Whitworth,  fol- 
lowing the  organization,  took  out  a  charter  in  Tennessee  and 
at  once  entered  upon  their  duties.  Mrs.  Kelley,  called  the  in- 
spiring genius  of  the  movement,  did  not  live  to  see  the  con- 
summation of  these  plans.  Her  death  occurred  in  November, 
1877. 

Miss  Lochie  Rankin,  the  first  missionary  of  the  Woman's 
Board,  appointed  to  assist  Mrs.  Lambuth  in  the  Clopton  School 
at  Shanghai,  sailed  for  China  in  1878.  The  first  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  new  organization  was  held  at  Louisville.  Ky.,  in 
May,  1879.  At  this  meeting  there  were  reported  fifteen  Con- 
ference societies,  with  two  hundred  and  eighteen  auxiliaries, 


284 


History  of  Methodism. 


nearly  six  thousand  members,  and  collections  amounting  to 
more  than  four  thousand  dollars. 

The  work  now  grew  so  rapidly  that  new  schemes  multiplied 
upon  the  hands  of  the  women.  Dr.  Walter  Lambuth  urged 
that  a  boarding  school  be  started  at  Nantziang,  China,  and 
$1,500  was  appropriated  for  that  purpose.  Miss  Lochie  Ran- 
kin was  put  in  charge  of  the  new  school;  and  her  sister,  Miss 
Dora  Rankin,  the  second  woman  missionary,  was  sent  to  her 
assistance.  Appeals  were  presented  from  Brazil  and  Mexico 
and  granted.  Mrs.  Norwood's  school  at  Laredo  was  given  $500, 
and  an  equal  amount  was  sent  to  Miss  Newman's  school  at 
Piracicaba.  These  schools  were  under  the  General  Board  of 
Missions.  Miss  Dora  Rankin  joined  her  sister  in  China  in  Oc- 
tober, 1879. 

By  the  end  of  the  second  year  there  were  twenty-two  Con- 
ference societies  organized,  with  475  auxiliaries,  12,548  mem- 
bers, and  si::. 775. 97  reported.  In  1880  the  Woman's  Mission- 
ary Advocate  was  started  at  Nashville,  with  Mrs.  F.  A.  Butler 
editor.  Mrs.  Butler  filled  this  position  most  ably  for  thirty 
years.  About  1880  Miss  Rebecca  Toland  was  sent  by  the  Wom- 
an's Missionary  Society  to  Mexico;  and  in  February,  1881, 
Miss  Mattie  Watts  went  to  Brazil,  where  she  opened  a  school 
at  Piracicaba.  The  work  grew-  in  the  three  fields,  and  soon  its 
success  proved  an  embarrassment  to  the  Society  at  home.  Ap- 
peals were  numerous  and  urgent,  and  funds  were  limited.  In 
1881  a  constitution  was  prepared  for  juvenile  societies.* 

The  history  of  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  work  in  the 
Church  is  also  a  record  full  of  interest.  In  connection  with 
the  paragraphs  devoted  to  the  Church  Extension  Board,  we 
have  briefly  referred  to  the  work  of  Miss  Lucinda  B.  Helm, 
the  original  mover  in  this  department  of  effort.  This  remark- 
able woman,  of  high  social  extraction  and  thoroughly  educated, 
was  led  through  grace  and  the  misfortune  of  inherited  ill 
health  to  devote  her  whole  life  to  labors  for  the  spiritual  sal- 
vation of  others.  From  the  first  she  was  an  enthusiastic  advo- 
cate and  an  exponent  of  the  women's  foreign  work.  She  also 
gave  early  and  earnest  help  to  the  Church  Extension  organiza- 


*Report  of  Woman's  Board. 


Woman's  Home  Board — Miss  Helm. 


235 


tion.  In  1885  it  was  reported  that  a  number  of  Western 
charges  had  been  abandoned  because  of  the  lack  of  homes  for 
the  preachers  and  missionaries.  Miss  Helm  immediately  came 
forward  with  a  plan  to  meet  this  need  and  also  to  minister  in 
other  important  lines.  The  needs  in  the  city  slums,  the,  moun- 
tain districts,  among  the  negroes,  the  immigrants,  and  else- 
where, had  touched  deeply  her  loving  heart,  and  her  plan  in- 
cluded the  various  phases  of  local  home  mission  work.  But 
the  Board  of  Church  Extension  opposed  this  comprehensive 
plan ;  so  she  was  forced  to  abandon  the  home  mission  features 
for  a  time  and  to  submit  a  second  plan  bearing  on  parsonage 
work  only.  This  she  did  in  April,  1880.  The  plan  was  adopted 
by  the  General  Conference  in  May,  1886,  and  the  Woman's 
Department  of  Church  Extension  was  authorized  to  raise  funds 
for  purchasing  and  securing  parsonages.  These  funds  were 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  General  and  Local  Boards  of 
Church  Extension.  The  officers  of  the  new  organization  were 
a  General  Secretary  (to  be  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension),  a  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  each  Annual  Con- 
ference, and  a  District  Secretary  (to  be  appointed  by  the  Con- 
ference Boards).  Fifty  per  cent  of  the  funds  in  the  Annual 
Conference  was  to  be  sent  to  the  General  Board  and  fifty  per 
cent  retained  by  the  Conference  Board. 

Lucinda  Helm  was  appointed  General  Secretary  and  at  once 
entered  on  her  new  work  with  faith,  energy,  and  intelligence. 
Though  frail,  she  was  untiring;  and  whether  on  the  train,  the 
platform,  or  at  her  desk,  her  zeal  never  flagged.  At  the  end 
of  the  first  year,  in  addition  to  the  great  interest  created,  she 
had  organized  35  Conference  societies  with  1,595  members,  60 
children's  societies,  and  23  parsonages  were  aided.  Boxes  were 
sent  to  preachers,  Sunday  school  literature  provided,  and  $4,- 
579  secured  for  local  work,  in  addition  to  the  regular  dues. 

With  no  assistance,  Miss  Helm  directed  and  supervised  a 
large  work.  Her  time  was  spent  in  traveling,  writing,  plan- 
ning, and  frequently  she  worked  all  night.  Letters  poured  in 
from  all  quarters  asking  for  advice,  information,  plans,  and 
methods.  Interest  increased,  the  bishops  approved,  hundreds 
of  women  were  inspired  to  work  and  to  give — all  because  one 
woman,  magnificently  endowed  for  leadership,  had  a  great 


History  of  Methodism. 


vision.  She  was  not  content  to  supply  parsonages  ;  she  wanted 
the  women  of  the  Church  to  undertake  a  complete  program  of 
home  mission  work.  With  the  aid  of  Mrs.  J.  D.  Hammond, 
Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison,  Dr.  Young  J.  Allen,  and  other  sympa- 
thizers, she  secured  a  change  of  charter  from  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1890  in  the  face  of  protests  and  opposition.  The 
new  charter  was  issued  to  the  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission 
Society.  There  was  a  Central  Committee,  with  the  following 
officers:  Mis.  E.  E.  Wiley,  President;  Miss  Lucinda  B.  Helm, 
General  Secretary;  Mrs.  George  P.  Kendrick,  General  Treas- 
urer; Mrs.  R.  K.  Hargrove,  Mrs.  Xathan  Scarritt,  Mrs.  D. 
Atkins,  Mrs.  S.  S.  King,  Miss  Emily  M.  Allen,  Mrs.  Maria 
Carter,  Mrs.  Ellen  Burdette,  Mrs.  John  Carter,  and  Miss  Belle 
H.  Bennett,  Managers. 

The  new  work  prospered  from  the  beginning.  Loan  funds 
were  raised,  parsonages  built,  and  soon  plans  were  made  for 
a  school  in  the  mountains  of  Kentucky.  This  latter  became 
the  Sue  Bennett  School,  at  London,  Ky.  Lines  were  thrown 
out  by  the  General  Secretary  for  the  various  phases  of  home 
mission  work,  for  training  workers,  and  for  publishing  a  paper. 

In  1892  the  publication  of  a  magazine  called  Our  Homes  was 
begun,  with  Lucinda  B.  Helm  as  editor.  In  1893  she  resigned 
as  General  Secretary  because  of  overwork  and  spent  her  re- 
maining years  editing  Our  Homes.  She  brought  to  this  labor 
of  love  the  ripe  experience,  mature  judgment,  and  sound  taste 
that  made  the  paper  a  power  for  righteousness.  With  her  pen 
she  gave  invaluable  assistance  to  the  development  of  mountain 
schools,  city  missions,  the  Pacific  Coast  and  Gulf  Coast  work, 
and  all  the  lines  of  home  mission  activity.  The  present  broad 
scope  and  magnificent  standards  in  this  department  are  largely 
due  to  the  untiring  efforts,  the  faith,  and  the  zeal  of  Lucinda 
Helm.  Faithfulness  and  truth  were  woven  into  the  texture 
of  her  being.  Honesty,  sympathy,  love,  loyalty,  humility,  cour- 
age, buoyancy,  fortitude,  and  appreciation  of  friends  were 
characteristics  of  this  great  and  gifted  woman. 

With  her  frail  body  worn  out  with  the  too  heavy  demands 
made  on  it  for  years,  her  friends  realized  in  the  summer  of 
1897  that  she  was  gradually  slipping  away  from  them.  The 
end  came  peacefully  on  November  15,  1897.    She  is  buried  on 


At  Rest — The  Matter  of  Education. 


287 


the  sunny  hillside  at  Helm  Place,  Kentucky,  with  great  forest 
trees  doing  sentinel  duty  over  her  grave.  There,  surrounded 
by  the  dust  of  loved  ones,  she  awaits  with  them  the  resurrec- 
tion morn.  On  the  stone  at  her  head  are  engraved  the  words : 
"She  hath  done  what  she  could."* 

Not  only  in  the  cause  of  missions  was  the  Church  moving 
and  planning  for  a  still  farther  advance,  but  the  matter  of 
education  was  enlisting  a  new  and  Connection-wide  interest. 
However,  a  struggle  in  Methodist  consciousness,  like  the  pre- 
natal struggles  of  Esau  and  Jacob,  was  being  felt.  An  unde- 
fined force  within  the  Church  had  aligned  itself  with,  and  was 
borrowing  inspiration  from,  the  secularizing  and  anti-Church 
movements  which  had  deeply  planned  the  exclusion  of  organ- 
ized religion  from  the  field  of  higher  education  and  was  at  that 
moment  at  the  height  of  its  development.  Since  that  time  the 
volume  of  these  movements  has  suffered  perceptible  diminution, 
some  of  their  bizarre  and  overt  methods  of  disaffecting  the  fac- 
ulties of  Church  schools  through  superannuate  annuities  and 
financial  retention  having  met  with  fiscal  disaster.  But  while 
the  forces  of  the  movement  were  at  their  height  they  were 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  educational  holdings  of  the  Method- 
ism of  the  South  in  a  way  that  produced  a  historic  climax,  to 
be  described  in  the  following  chapter. 

Dr.  James  E.  Dickey,  who  by  the  General  Conference  of  1910 
was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  found  that 
obligations  incurred  as  President  of  Emory  College  precluded 
the  possibility  of  his  accepting  the  proffered  post.  He  there- 
fore declined  the  headship  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the 
Board  filled  the  vacancy  by  the  election  of  Rev.  Stonewall  An- 
derson, D.D.,  at  that  time  President  of  Hendrix  College.  Dr. 
Anderson  is  in  the  third  quadrennium  of  his  service  as  Secre- 
tary of  Education. 


*"Life  and  Works  of  Lucinda  B.  Helm,"  by  Mrs.  Arabel  W.  Alexander. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


The  Vanderbilt  University  Case — History  of  "Central  University" — 
The  Memphis  Convention — Charter  Granted — Commodore  Vander- 
bilt's  Gift — Action  of  the  Conferences — A  New  Chancellor — General 
Conference  Made  Sole  Member  of  Vanderbilt  University  Corporation 
— Period  of  Alienation  Begins — Action  of  General  Conference  of  1906 
— Vanderbilt  Commission  Appointed — Commission  Reports — Visito- 
rial  Powers — Attempt  to  Pass  Bill  in  Tennessee  Legislature — Action 
of  General  Conference  of  1910 — Suit  Begun  by  Bishops — Chancery 
Court  Decides  for  the  Church — Sweeping  Victory — Appeal  by  Trus- 
tees— A  Million  Dollars  Solicited  by  Chancellor — Given  on  Condition 
that  the  Trustees  Should  Win  Suit — Church  Loses  Suit  in  Highest 
State  Court — Action  of  General  Conference  of  1914 — A  Broader  Edu- 
cational Platform  for  the  Church — Victory  Out  of  Wrong  and  Defeat 
—1910-1913  (Continued). 


X  a  former  chapter  was  introduced  the  series  of  convention- 


1  al  and  commissional  actions  in  that  long-drawn-out  drama 
known  as  the  Vanderbilt  University  case.  In  that  chapter 
was  noted  the  fact  of  the  appointment  by  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1906  of  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  status  of 
Vanderbilt  University  as  a  property  of  the  Church  and  to  de- 
termine the  relations  of  the  bishops  as  the  charter  representa- 
tives of  the  Church  to  said  property.  This  commission,  being 
duly  organized,  went  carefully  and  patiently  through  all  the 
records  and  history  of  the  property  and  reported  ad  interim 
to  the  bishops  and  to  the  Board  of  Trust.  They  found:  First, 
that  the  Church  was  the  founder  and  owner  of  the  university ; 
second,  that  the  trustees  were  only  the  agents  of  the  Church ; 
and,  third,  that  the  bishops  were  common-law  visitors,  or  super- 
visors of  the  property  for  the  Church,  with  veto  powers  over 
the  acts  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  The  commission  also  rec- 
ommended that,  though  the  title  was  already  perfect  in  the 
General  Conference,  to  which  the  university  had  been  trans- 
ferred by  the  originally  incorporating  Conferences,  the  Con- 
ferences should  be  advised  to  pass  a  uniform  resolution,  or  act 
of  transfer,  as  a  matter  of  record. 

These  statements  set  the  famous  case  in  the  light  of  its  last 
stage  before  the  issue  became  crucial  and  before  it  became 
clear  to  all  open-minded  men  that  the  alienation  of  the  trust 


(288) 


Historic  Plan  for  University. 


289 


was  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  Chancellor  and  a  majority  of 
the  trustees.  In  order,  therefore,  that  the  whole  history  of  the 
case  may  become  a  record  in  this  volume,  we  have  thought  it 
well  to  give  a  complete  survey  of  the  events  connected  with  the 
founding  of  the  university,  the  long  and  unquestioned  owner- 
ship and  administration  of  the  property  by  the  Church,  the 
emergence  of  the  plans  of  alienation,  the  contest  entered  upon 
by  the  Church  to  maintain  its  history-attested  claims,  the  legal 
processes  by  which  the  property  passed  from  the  control  of 
the  Church,  and  the  action  of  the  Church  in  dissolving  the 
tenuous  and  discrediting  relationship  left  between  it  and  the 
school  by  the  final  decree  of  the  court. 

"The  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,"  the  name  by  which  Vanderbilt  University  was  at  first 
known,  was  established  by  certain  Annual  Conferences  in  order 
to  provide  for  the  education  of  the  youth  of  the  Church  and 
the  country  at  large.  This  was  to  be  an  institution  founded 
upon  a  permanent  basis,  primarily  for  the  education  of  a  min- 
istry for  the  Church,  but  where  could  be  "prosecuted  as  well 
literary,  scientific,  and  professional  studies  to  an  extent  as 
great  and  in  a  manner  as  thorough  as  the  wants  of  the  students 
might  demand  and  their  means  admit."  The  need  of  such  an 
institution  had  long  been  felt  by  the  leaders  of  Methodism, 
nor  was  this  their  first  attempt  to  establish  a  great  central 
university  under  Church  control.  Prior  to  1858  such  an  insti- 
tution of  learning  had  been  contemplated.  In  that  year  the 
General  Conference  passed  the  following  order: 

Whereas  the  charter  of  the  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  obtained  from  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Ten- 
nessee, has  been  presented  to  this  Conference  for  its  reception; 

Resolved,  That  the  Tennessee  Annual  Conference  at  its  next  ses- 
sion take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  receiving  said  institution 
under  its  care  and  management,  and  that  any  other  Annual  Confer- 
ence that  may  choose  to  do  so  join  the  Tennessee  Conference  in  this 
measure,  and  that  steps  be  taken  to  have  the  charter  so  changed  as  to 
conform  it  to  this  arrangement. 

The  State  of  Tennessee  had  specially  authorized  the  organi- 
zation of  such  an  institution  and  had  incorporated  a  number 
of  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  for 
19 


290 


History  of  Methodism. 


establishing  and  maintaining  the  same  in  the  name  of  the 
Church.  The  enterprise  would  then,  no  doubt,  have  been  car- 
ried to  completion,  but  the  War  between  the  States  brought 
the  great  plan  to  naught,  and  the  successful  inception  of  the 
work  was  left  to  a  new  and  happier  time. 

The  first  authoritative  step  taken  in  the  revival  of  this  ante- 
bellum movement  was  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  offered  by 
the  Rev.  Wellborn  Moonev  at  the  Tennessee  Conference  held 
at  Lebanon,  Tenn.,  October  4-9,  1871,  which  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  we  request  the  presiding  bishop  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  three  to  confer  with  the  Memphis,  North  Alabama,  North 
Mississippi,  and  any  other  Conferences  likely  to  cooperate  with  us  in 
reference  to  the  establishment  and  endowment  of  a  Methodist  univer- 
sity of  high  grade  and  large  endowment. 

A  committee,  consisting  of  Drs.  D.  C.  Kelley,  A.  L.  P.  Green, 
and  R.  A.  Young,  was  appointed  by  the  presiding  bishop  to 
carry  out  the  provisions  expressed  in  this  resolution.  The 
session  of  the  Memphis  Conference  held  at  Trenton,  Tenn., 
November  17,  1871,  after  hearing  an  address  by  Dr.  Green, 
authorized  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  three  to  confer 
with  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Tennessee  Conference. 
Rev.  W.  C.  Johnson,  Rev.  S.  W.  Moore,  and  Rev.  T.  L.  Boswell 
were  named  to  constitute  this  committee.  Later  it  was  re- 
solved to  add  to  the  committee  the  names  of  three  laymen  and 
that  Conferences  acting  thereafter  in  favor  of  the  enterprise  be 
requested  each  to  appoint  a  committee  of  six,  three  preachers 
and  three  laymen,  and  that  the  committees  already  appointed 
be  requested  to  nominate  to  the  bishops  who  preside  at  their 
sessions  proper  persons  as  their  colleagues.  The  bishop  pre- 
siding at  the  Memphis  Conference  appointed  the  following- 
named  laymen — viz.,  Hons.  Milton  Brown,  R.  J.  Morgan,  and 
M.  J.  Wicks.  The  enterprise  was  now  put  fully  under  way, 
when  similar  action  was  taken  and  committees  appointed  by 
the  North  Alabama  Conference,  the  Mississippi  Conference, 
the  North  Mississippi  Conference,  the  Alabama  Conference, 
the  Arkansas  Conference,  and  the  White  River  Conference, 
all  in  the  same  year. 

When  these  committees,  together  with  Bishops  McTyeire  and 
Paine,  met  in  the  city  of  Memphis.  Tenn.,  on  the  twenty-fourth 


The  "Memphis  Convention, 


201 


day  of  January,  1872,  they  constituted  the  gathering  which 
afterwards  became  famous  as  the  "Memphis  Convention. 99 
This  convention  lasted  until  and  including  the  twenty-seventh 
day  of  January.  At  this  convention,  called  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  steps  to  establish  a  university  under  the  patron- 
age and  control  of  such  Conferences  of  the  Church  as  elected 
to  participate,  the  following  resolutions  (afterwards  known  as 
"the  Memphis  resolutions")  were  adopted: 

•  Resolved  by  the  Convention:  1.  That  measures  be  adopted  looking 
to  the  establishment  as  speedily  as  practicable  of  an  institution  of 
learning  of  the  highest  order  and  upon  the  surest  basis,  where  the 
youth  of  the  Church  and  country  may  prosecute  theological,  literary, 
scientific,  and  professional  studies  to  an  extent  as  great  and  in  a  man- 
ner as  thorough  as  their  wants  demand. 

2.  That  this  institution  shall  be  called  the  Central  University  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

3.  That  it  shall  consist  at  present  of  five  schools  or  departments — 
viz.:  (1)  A  theological  school  for  the  training  of  our  young  preachers, 
who,  on  application  for  admission,  shall  present  a  recommendation 
from  a  Quarterly  or  an  Annuax  Conference  and  shall  have  attained  a 
standard  of  education  equal  to  that  required  for  admission  on  trial 
into  an  Annual  Conference,  and  instruction  to  them  shall  be  free  both 
in  the  theological  and  the  literary  and  scientific  departments;  (2)  a 
literary  and  scientific  school;  (3)  a  normal  school;  (4)  a  law  school; 
(5)  a  medical  school. 

4.  That  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars  is  necessary  in  order  to  real- 
ize fully  the  object  desired,  and  not  less  than  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  must  be  secured  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  opening  of  any 
department  of  the  university. 

5.  That  the  location  of  the  university  shall  be  left  to  the  decision 
of  the  College  of  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

6.  That  the  carrying  out  of  this  whole  scheme  is  hereby  committed 
to  the  following  persons — viz.:  William  C.  Johnson,  Robert  J.  Morgan, 
Smith  W.  Moore,  Miltor.  Brown,  Alexander  L.  P.  Green,  Jordan 
Stokes,  David  C.  Kelley,  Edward  H.  East,  Robert  A.  Young,  Landon  C. 
Garland,  Philip  Tuggle,  John  M.  Steel,  James  H.  McFerrin,  Christo- 
pher D.  Oliver,  William  Dickson,  Edward  Wadsworth,  William  M. 
Brice,  William  L.  C.  Hunnicutt,  Thomas  Christian,  James  S.  Borden, 
William  H.  Foster,  Andrew  Hunter,  James  L.  DeYampert,  and  David 
T.  Reynolds,  who  shall  take  immediate  steps  for  securing  a  suitable 
charter  and  incorporation  and  shall  be  a  Board  of  Trust,  with  power 
to  solicit  and  invest  funds,  appoint  an  agent  or  agents,  and  do  what- 
ever else  is  necessary  for  the  extension  of  this  scheme. 

7.  That  seven  of  the  Board  of  Trust  at  any  meeting  regularly  called 
shall  constitute  a  quorum. 


292 


History  of  Methodism. 


8.  That  provisions  be  made  in  the  charter  for  giving  a  fair  represen- 
tation in  the  management  of  the  university  to  any  Annual  Conference 
hereafter  cooperating  with  us. 

9.  That  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  be 
and  hereby  are  requested  to  act  as  a  Board  of  Supervision  of  the  uni- 
versity or  any  of  ^departments  and,  jointly  with  the  Board  of  Trust, 
to  elect  officers  and  professors  and  prescribe  the  course  of  study  and 
the  plan  of  government. 

Following  the  sitting  of  this  convention  and  in  accordance 
with  these  resolutions,  the  parties  named  in  paragraph  f;  em- 
ployed as  counsel  the  Hon.  Thomas  H.  Malone,  a  lawyer  of 
Nashville,  who  prepared  a  petition  which  was  presented  to  the 
Chancery  Court  of  Davidson  County,  Tenn.,  reciting  the  fact 
of  the  sitting  of  the  Memphis  Convention  and  the  resolutions 
adopted  by  it  and  praying  for  a  charter  of  incorporation  under 
the  laws  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  At  its  April  term,  1872, 
the  court  granted  a  charter  of  incorporation  to  the  "Central 
University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South/'  in  the 
following  words  and  figures — viz. : 

The  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Ex  Parte. 

This  matter  came  up  on  this  day  to  be  heard  before  the  Hon.  Na- 
thaniel Baxter,  Judge,  etc.,  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Davidson  County, 
sitting  by  interchange  with  the  Hon.  Edward  H.  East,  the  Chancellor 
presiding,  but  who  was  incompetent  to  preside  and  hear  this  cause  for 
the  reason  that  he  was  interested  herein;  and  the  same  was  heard 
upon  the  petition  of  W.  C.  Johnson,  Robert  J.  Morgan,  Smith  W.  Moore, 
and  Milton  Brown,  citizens  and  residents  of  the  State  of  Tennessee 
and  representatives  of  the  Memphis  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South;  and  Alexander  L.  P.  Green,  Jordan  Stokes,  David 
C.  Kelley,  Edward  H.  East,  David  T.  Reynolds,  and  Robert  A.  Young, 
citizens  and  residents  of  Tennessee  and  representatives  of  the  Tennes- 
see Conference;  and  Landon  C.  Garland,  a  citizen  and  resident  of  Mis- 
sissippi; and  Philip  Tuggle,  a  citizen  and  resident  of  Tennessee,  the 
two  latter  representing  the  North  Mississippi  Conference;  and  James 
H.  McFerrin  and  John  M.  Steel,  citizens  of  the  State  of  Arkansas  and 
representatives  of  the  White  River  Conference;  and  Christopher  D. 
Oliver  and  William  Dickson,  citizens  of  the  State  of  Alabama  and 
representatives  of  the  North  Alabama  Conference;  and  Edward  Wads- 
worth  and  W.  W.  Byrd,  citizens  of  the  State  of  Alabama  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Alabama  Conference;  and  W.  L.  C.  Hunnicutt  and 
Thomas  Christian,  citizens  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  and  representa- 
tives of  the  Mississippi  Conference;  and  James  L.  Borden  and  William 


Charter  of  "Central  University" 


293 


H.  Foster,  citizens  of  the  State  of  Louisiana  and  representatives  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference;  and  Andrew  Hunter  and  J.  L.  DeYampert,  citi- 
zens of  the  State  of  Arkansas  and  representatives  of  the  Little  Rock 
Conference;  and  it  appearing  to  the  court  that  said  persons  in  their  said 
petition  prayed  to  be  incorporated  under  the  name  and  style  of  the 
Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  the  ob- 
ject and  plan  of  said  university  having  been  fully  set  forth  in  reso- 
lutions passed  by  the  delegates  of  said  Conferences  at  a  convention  of 
the  same  held  in  the  city  of  Memphis  on  January  24,  25,  26,  and  27,  1872, 
and  which  resolutions  are  in  words  and  figures  as  follows: 

"Resolved  by  the  Convention:  1.  That  measures  be  adopted  looking 
to  the  establishment  as  speedily  as  practicable  of  an  institution  of 
learning  of  the  highest  order  and  upon  the  surest  basis  where  the 
youth  of  the  Church  and  country  may  prosecute  theological,  literary, 
scientific,  and  professional  studies  to  an  extent  as  great  and  in  manner 
as  thorough  as  their  wants  demand. 

"2.  That  this  institution  shall  be  called  the  Central  University  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

"3.  That  it  shall  consist  at  present  of  five  schools  or  departments — 
viz.:  (1)  A  theological  school  for  the  training  of  our  young  preach- 
ers, who,  on  application  for  admission,  shall  present  a  recommendation 
from  a  Quarterly  or  an  Annual  Conference  and  shall  have  attained  a 
standard  of  education  equal  to  that  required  for  admission  on  trial 
into  an  Annual  Conference,  and  instruction  to  them  shall  be  free  both 
in  the  theological  and  the  literary  and  scientific  departments;  (2)  a 
literary  and  scientific  school;  (3)  a  normal  school;  (4)  a  law  school; 
(5)  a  medical  school. 

"4.  That  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars  is  necessary  in  order  to 
realize  fully  the  object  desired,  and  not  less  than  five  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  must  be  secured  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  opening 
of  any  department  of  the  university. 

"5.  That  the  location  of  the  university  shall  be  left  to  the  decision  of 
the  College  of  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

"6.  That  the  carrying  out  of  this  whole  scheme  is  hereby  committed 
to  the  following  persons — viz.:  William  C.  Johnson,  Robert  J.  Morgan, 
Smith  W.  Moore,  Milton  Brown,  Alexander  L.  P.  Green,  Jordan  Stokes, 
David  C.  Kelley,  Edward  H.  East,  Robert  A.  Young,  Landon  C.  Garland, 
Philip  Tuggle,  John  M.  Steel,  James  H.  McFerrin,  Christopher  D. 
Oliver,  William  Dickson,  Edward  Wadsworth,  William  M.  Bryce,  Wil- 
liam L.  C.  Hunnicutt,  Thomas  Christian,  James  L.  Borden,  William. 
H.  Foster,  Andrew  Hunter,  James  L.  DeYampert,  and  David  T.  Rey- 
nolds, who  shall  take  immediate  steps  for  securing  a  suitable  charter 
and  incorporation,  and  shall  be  a  Board  of  Trust,  with  power  to  so- 
licit and  invest  funds,  appoint  an  agent  or  agents,  and  do  whatever 
else  is  necessary  for  the  extension  of  this  scheme. 

"7.  That  seven  of  the  Board  of  Trust  at  any  meeting  regularly  called 
shall  constitute  a  quorum. 


204 


History  of  Methodism. 


"8.  That  provision  be  made  in  the  charter  for  giving  a  fair  repre- 
sentation in  the  management  of  the  university  to  any  Annual  Confer- 
ence hereafter  cooperating  with  us. 

"9.  That  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  be 
and  hereby  are  requested  to  act  as  a  Board  of  Supervision  of  the  uni- 
versity or  any  of  its  departments  and  jointly  with  the  Board  of  Trust 
to  elect  officers  and  professors  and  prescribe  the  course  of  study  and 
the  plan  of  government." 

And  it  further  appearing  to  the  court  that,  upon  the  filing  of  said 
petition,  the  Clerk  and  Master  of  this  court  caused,  by  an  order  at 
rules,  the  same  to  be  advertised,  in  pursuance  of  the  statute  in  such 
cases  made  and  prescribed;  and  it  further  appearing  to  the  court  that 
no  one  has  appeared  and  made  known  any  objection  to'  the  granting 
of  the  prayer  of  the  petition,  and  the  court,  upon  inspection  of  the 
designs  and  objects  of  said  corporation,  finds  nothing  therein  contained 
to  be  against  public  policy  or  good  morals  or  in  conflict  with  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  State  or  of  the  United  States,  is  pleased  to 
grant  the  prayer  of  the  same,  and  doth  hereby  order  and  adjudge  and 
decree  that  the  petitioners  be  declared  a  body  politic  and  corporate 
under  the  name  and  style  of  "The  Central  University  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,"  and  in  that  name  may  sue  and  be 
sued,  plead  and  be  impleaded,  in  the  courts  of  this  State  or  of  the 
other  States  of  the  Union  or  of  the  United  States  of  America;  may 
have  a  common  seal,  which  may  be  altered  at  pleasure;  shall  have 
perpetual  succession;  may  solicit  and  receive  subscriptions,  donations, 
legacies,  and  devises;  may  hold  real  estate  and  personal  property  in 
such  amounts  as  the  business  of  the  corporation  requires,  and  may  re- 
ceive the  same  by  contract,  gift,  will,  or  devise,  and  shall  hold  the  same 
for  the  purpose  of  said  corporation,  with  all  the  lawful  conditions  im- 
posed by  the  donor;  may  appoint  such  subordinate  officers  and  agents 
as  the  business  of  the  corporation  requires,  prescribe  their  duties  and 
fix  their  compensation;  may  make  by-laws  not  inconsistent  with  the 
laws  of  the  land  or  this  charter  or  the  resolutions  of  the  convention  at 
Memphis,  as  set  out  herein,  which  resolutions  are  hereby  adopted  as 
a  part  of  this  charter,  but  shall  make  all  by-laws  necessary  and  proper 
to  carry  out  the  objects  of  said  resolutions,  as  well  as  for  the  man- 
agement of  its  property  and  the  regulation  of  its  affairs;  and  may  also 
have  power  to  pass  all  by-laws  necessary  to  the  use  of  the  powers  there- 
in given,  or  which  by  law  may  hereafter  be  conferred;  and  all  said 
powers,  rights,  and  privileges,  together  with  such  others  as  are  not 
herein  specially  given  and  referred  to,  are  hereby  conferred  upon  said 
corporation  in  as  full,  complete,  and  ample  manner  as  by  the  laws  of 
the  State  the  same  can  or  might  be;  and  said  corporation  shall  have 
the  power  to  confer  all  the  degrees  of  merit  and  honor  usually  con- 
ferred by  universities.  It  is  further  decreed  that  petitioners  pay  the 
costs  of  this  proceeding  and  that  the  Clerk  and  Master  issue  to  them 
a  certified  copy  of  this  decree.  Nathaniel  Baxter,  Judge. 


Action  of  the  Conferences. 


295 


This  charter  was  duly  attested  by  a  . master  in  chancery  and 
was  accepted  by  the  incorporators  as  legal  and  valid.  As 
agents  and  servants  of  their  Annual  Conferences,  the  incor- 
porators reported  to  the  several  sessions  the  action  thus  taken, 
as  also  concerning  the  Memphis  Convention  and  the  resolutions 
adopted — in  a  word,  the  whole  history  and  process  of  the  in- 
corporation. In  addition,  the  incorporators,  who  by  the  char- 
ter were  made  the  first  Board  of  Trust,  requested  the  nomina- 
tion of  four  members  by  each  Conference  to  constitute  a  regu- 
lar Board.  The  Conferences  took  action  as  follows:  The  Ten- 
nessee Conference  at  its  meeting  in  Nashville  October  16-23, 
1872,  received  the  report  of  the  committee  and,  with  altera- 
tions and  amendments  proposed  by  Dr.  McFerrin,  unanimously 
adopted  it.  The  presiding  bishop  was  requested  to  appoint  an 
agent  for  Central  University,  to  operate  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Conference.  A.  L.  P.  Green,  D.  C.  Kelley,  R.  A.  Young, 
E.  H.  East,  Jordan  Stokes,  and  D.  T.  Reynolds  were  continued 
as  the  representatives  of  the  Conference  on  the  Board.  Dr. 
A.  L.  P.  Green  was  appointed  General  Secretary  of  the  uni- 
versity. At  the  Memphis  Conference  held  at  Somerville  No- 
vember 20-25,  1872,  the  report  was  submitted  and  approved. 
Dr.  Green,  Treasurer  of  the  Board  of  Trust,  was  invited  to 
visit  the  charges  of  the  Conference,  and  the  bishop  was  re- 
quested to  appoint  W.  M.  Patterson  to  cooperate  with  him  in 
canvassing  for  an  endowment  fund.  The  Conference  also 
nominated  W.  C.  Johnson,  S.  W.  Moore,  R.  J.  Morgan,  and 
Milton  Brown  to  represent  the  Conference  on  the  Board.  At 
the  White  River  Conference,  held  in  the  same  year,  the  report 
was  accepted,  and  the  following-named  were  selected  as  trus- 
tees— to  wit:  John  M.  Steel,  George  Dannelly,  James  H.  Mc- 
Ferrin, and  J.  W.  Stayton.  The  Arkansas  Conference,  meet- 
ing about  the  same  time,  indorsed  the  report  and  nominated 
four  of  its  members  to  represent  it  on  the  Board  of  Trust 
under  the  provision  of  the  charter  already  obtained.  The 
North  Mississippi  Conference,  meeting  November  28,  1872,  in- 
dorsed the  report  and  appointed  Philip  Tuggle,  L.  C.  Garland, 
T.  Y.  Ramsey,  and  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  to  be  members  of  the  Board. 
Tt  also  requested  that  the  presiding  bishop  appoint  an  agent 
to  solicit  subscriptions  in  aid  of  the  university.    The  North 


296 


History  of  Methodism. 


Alabama  Conference  was  late  in  acting,  but  at  its  annual  ses- 
sion held  at  Huntsville  in  November,  1874,  it  elected  the  fol- 
lowing members  to  represent  it  on  the  Board  of  Trust:  C.  D. 
Oliver,  Anson  West,  W.  B.  Wood,  and  J.  J.  Dument. 

Thus  by  the  action  of  the  Conferences  the  university  as  in- 
corporated was  adopted  and  the  members  of  the  Board  of 
Trust  selected.  The  sole,  exceptional,  and  complete  person- 
ality of  the  Church  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  present  in  this 
first  and  most  important  stage  of  the  university's  building. 
It  must  also  be  noticed  how  completely  the  incorporators  con- 
sidered themselves  the  agents  and  servants  of  the  Church  and 
in  no  sense  principals. 

The  Board  of  Trust  thus  selected  by  the  several  Annual  Con- 
ferences held  their  first  meeting  in  Brownsville,  Tenn.,  on 
January  17,  1873,  and  adopted  by-laws  for  the  government  of 
the  corporation.    The  seventh  by-law  was  as  follows: 

VII.  Each  cooperating  Conference  being  entitled  to  four  members  or 
representatives  in  the  Board  of  Trust,  should  any  vacancy  or  vacancies 
occur,  the  Board  shall  fill  the  same  upon  the  nomination  of  the  Con- 
ference to  be  represented. 

This  -by-law  remained  in  force  until  the  3d  of  May,  1875. 
when  it  was  found  to  be  best  simply  to  reverse  the  order  of 
nomination.  On  motion  of  Judge  East,  the  following  by-law 
was,  therefore,  adopted : 

Each  cooperating  Conference  being  entitled  to  four  members  or  rep- 
resentatives in  this  Board  of  Trust,  should  any  vacancy  occur  in  the 
representation  of  any  Conference,  the  same  shall  be  filled  upon  the 
nomination  of  this  Board  to  the  Conference  in  which  the  vacancy  oc- 
curred and  stand  subject  to  its  nomination. 

This  was  no  change  in  the  fundamental  principle;  but  by 
both  of  the  by-laws  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trust  there  was 
recognition  by  the  then  members,  who  had  themselves  been 
chosen  by  the  several  patronizing  Conferences,  that  these  Con- 
ferences were  the  members  of  the  corporation  and  had  the 
right  to  select  their  representatives  as  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  Trust,  and  that  the  Board  of  Trust  was  constituted, 
and  should  remain  constituted  at  all  future  times,  by  members 
either  nominated  by  the  Board  of  Trust  and  confirmed  by  the 


Call  for  Funds — Commodore  Vanderbilt's  (lift.  297 


Conferences  or  named  by  the  Conferences  themselves,  as  in  the 
beginning. 

The  Board  of  Trust,  selected  as  above  described,  met  in 
January,  1873,  and  issued  an  address  setting  forth  the  or- 
ganization of  the  corporation  and  the  purposes  as  specified  by 
the  Memphis  resolutions  and  called  for  funds  with  which  to 
endow  the  university.  And  now  came  an  unexpected  good  for- 
tune to  the  institution.  Through  Bishop  McTyeire  this  appeal, 
together  with  the  plan  and  scope  of  the  work,  was  presented 
to  Mr.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  of  New  York,  with  the  result  that 
a  munificent  sum  was  by  him  donated  to  the  university  as  de- 
scribed in  the  following  letter: 

New  York,  March  17,  1873. 

To  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire,  of  Nashville: 

I  make  the  following  offer,  through  you,  to  the  corporation  known  as 
"The  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South": 

1.  I  authorize  you  to  procure  suitable  grounds,  not  less  than  from 
twenty  to  fifty  acres,  properly  located  for  the  erection  of  the  following 
work: 

2.  To  erect  thereon  suitable  buildings  for  the  uses  of  the  university. 

3.  You  to  procure  plans  and  specifications  for  such  buildings  and 
submit  them  to  me;  and  when  approved,  the  money  for  the  foregoing 
objects  to  be  furnished  by  me  as  it  is  needed. 

4.  The  sum  included  in  the  foregoing  items,  together  with  the  "en- 
dowment fund"  and  the  "library  fund,"  shall  not  be  less  in  the  aggre- 
gate than  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  ($500,000);  and  these  last 
two  funds  shall  be  furnished  to  the  corporation  so  soon  as  the  build- 
ings for  the  university  are  completed  and  ready  to  be  used. 

The  foregoing  being  subject  to  the  following  conditions: 

1.  That  you  accept  the  presidency  of  the  Board  of  Trust,  receiving 
therefor  a  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars  per  annum  and  the  use  of 
a  dwelling  house,  free  of  rent,  on  or  near  the  university  grounds. 

2.  Upon  your  death  or  resignation  the  Board  of  Trust  shall  elect  a 
President. 

3.  To  check  hasty  or  injudicious  appropriations  or  measures,  the 
President  shall  have  authority,  whenever  he  objects  to  any  act  of  the 
Board,  to  signify  his  objections  in  writing  within  ten  days  after  its 
enactment;  and  no  such  act  is  to  be  valid  unless,  upon  reconsideration, 
it  be  passed  by  a  three-fourths  vote  of  the  Board. 

4.  The  amount  set  apart  by  me  as  an  "endowment  fund"  shall  be 
forever  inviolable  and  shall  be  kept  safely  invested,  and  the  interest 
and  revenue  only  used  in  carrying  on  the  university.  The  form  of 
investment  which  I  prefer,  and  in  which  I  reserve  the  privilege  to 
give  the  money  for  the  said  fund,  is  in  seven  per  cent  first  mortgage 


298 


History  of  Methodism. 


bonds  of  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad  Company, 
to  be  "registered"  in  the  name  of  the  corporation  and  to  be  transferred 
only  upon  a  special  vote  of  the  Board  of  Trust. 

5.  The  university  is  to  be  located  in  or  near  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Respectfully  submitted.  C.  Vanderbilt. 

This  offer  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt  was,  on  the  twenty-sixth  day  of 
March,  1873,  accepted  by  the  Board,  which  passed  appropriate 
resolutions  of  thanks  and  appointed  a  committee  to  ask  the 
Chancery  Court  to  change  the  name  and  style  of  the  corpora- 
tion from  "The  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,"  to  "Vanderbilt  University,"  and  that  the  insti- 
tution, thus  endowed  and  chartered,  should  be  from  that  time 
known  by  this  name.  The  Hon.  M.  Brown,  the  Hon.  E.  H. 
East,  and  the  Rev.  D.  C.  Kelley,  D.D.,  were  authorized  and  re- 
quested to  act  on  this  committee.  The  Secretary  was  directed 
to  convey  to  Mr.  Vanderbilt  the  sincere  thanks  of  the  Board 
for  his  munificent  gift. 

To  the  action  of  the  Board  Mr.  Vanderbilt  replied  on  the 
thirty-first  day  of  March,  1873,  as  follows : 

My  Dear  Sir:  Your  favor  of  the  twenty-seventh  inst,  inclosing  a 
resolution  of  the  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  passed  the  twenty-sixth  inst.,  is  received  and  is  very  satisfactory. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  C.  Vanderbilt. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  at  the  time  of  making  this 
donation  to  the  university  Mr.  Vanderbilt  did  not  suggest  any 
change  in  the  charter  or  in  the  membership  of  the  corporation 
or  in  the  relation  of  the  patronizing  Conferences  to  the  uni- 
versity. The  only  change  that  was  made  or  suggested  at  the 
time  was  of  the  name  of  the  university,  as  a  token  of  apprecia- 
tion of  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  gift;  and  this  suggestion  emanated 
from  the  Board  of  Trust,  which  Board  considered  itself  the 
agent  and  servant  of  the  Church.  Its  actions  were  referred  to 
the  several  patronizing  Conferences,  members  of  the  corpora- 
tion, which  authorized  the  change  of  name  to  "Vanderbilt 
University." 

The  North  Mississippi  Conference  which  met  at  Grenada 
November  20,  1873,  not  only  joined  in  this  action,  but  sub- 
scribed ten  thousand  dollars  to  be  added  to  the  funds  of  the 
university.    The  Arkansas  Conference  agreed  to  unite  in  rais- 


Further  Conference  Actions. 


299 


ing  the  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  asked  for  by  the  Board 
of  Trust  and  appointed  Dr.  Winfield  as  agent  to  raise  its 
share  of  the  same.  The  Memphis  Conference,  after  hearing  an 
address  by  Dr.  Young  in  behalf  of  the  university,  made  a  sub- 
scription of  five  thousand  dollars  to  the  endowment  fund.  The 
Tennessee  Conference  confirmed  Drs.  Green  and  Young  in  the 
positions  to  which  they  had  been  elected  by  the  Board  of 
Trust  and  at  the  same  time  named  R.  A.  Young  as  Agent  and 
A.  L.  P.  Green  as  Treasurer  of  the  university. 

By  these  several  actions  Vanderbilt  University  was  launched 
by  the  Conferences  which  were  members  of  the  corporation. 
For  twenty-five  years  thereafter  the  Board  of  Trust  and  the 
patronizing  Conferences  acted  in  harmony,  the  Conferences 
agreeing  generally  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Board,  but 
with  no  thought  upon  the  part  of  either  that  the  Conferences 
should  surrender  their  rights  as  the  owners  of  the  university. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  unquestioned  authority  and  corporation 
rights  of  the  Church,  the  following  action  of  the  Tennessee 
Conference,  taken  in  October,  1874,  may  be  cited : 

Resolved:  1.  That  we  proceed  to  nominate  one  of  our  members  to 
fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Board  of  Trust  caused  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Green 
and  that  we  nominate  Dr.  R.  A.  Young. 

2.  That,  in  response  to  the  request  of  the  Board  of  Trust,  we  con- 
sent to  modify  the  original  contract,  so  that  hereafter,  when  a  vacancy 
occurs,  the  Board  may  nominate  one  of  our  members  to  us  for  con- 
firmation, the  nominee  not  to  be  a  member  of  the  Board  until  con- 
firmed by  us. 

The  Memphis  Conference  held  at  Paducah  November  23, 
1875,  declared  that:  "With  the  brethren  of  other  Conferences, 
we  have  vested  rights  in  the  university  which  we  hold  sacred 
and  will  do  our  part  in  making  it  a  blessing  to  the  Church,  to 
our  children,  and  to  generations  yet  to  come."  Speaking  be- 
fore the  North  Mississippi  Conference,  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, Chancellor  Garland  said  in  November,  1874,  that  Van- 
derbilt University  was  "an  institution  of  high  learning,  partly 
under  the  control  of  this  Conference  and  entirely  under  the 
control  of  the  Church." 

Constantly,  year  by  year,  almost  without  exception,  the  min- 
utes of  the  Tennessee,  the  Memphis,  the  North  Mississippi,  the 


300 


History  of  Methodism. 


North  Alabama,  the  Arkansas,  and  the  Mississippi  Confer- 
ences show  that  Dr.  Young,  Secretary  of  the  university,  regu- 
larly appeared  before  those  bodies  and  usually  received  con- 
tributions for  the  endowment  fund.  Committees  on  education 
in  almost  every  instance  made  reports  on  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity. From  its  foundation  it  was  recognized  as  a  Church 
institution,  commended  to  the  people  of  the  Church,  patron- 
ized and  superintended  by  these  Conferences,  and  finally  was 
by  them  turned  over  to  the  General  Conference. 

After  years  of  experience,  it  was  thought  wise  to  make  cer- 
tain changes  in  the  manner  of  electing  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trust  and  in  the  official  tenure  of  the  same.  In  1888  the 
following  report  was,  therefore,  made  to  the  Board : 

Having  carefully  considered  the  matter  referred  to  us,  your  com- 
mittee respectfully  recommends  the  adoption  of  the  following  by-law 
therein:  The  Board  of  Trust  shall,  after  the  expiration  of  the  terms  of 
the  present  members  as  hereinafter  provided,  consist  of  two  members, 
one  clerical  and  one  lay,  from  each  of  the  patronizing  Conferences. 
These  shall  be  divided  into  four  classes,  as  follows:  The  members  from 
the  Tennessee  and  North  Alabama  Conferences  shall  constitute  one 
class,  and  their  terms  of  office  shall  expire  in  1890;  the  members  from 
the  Memphis  and  North  Mississippi  Conferences  shall  constitute  one 
class,  and  their  terms  of  office  shall  expire  in  1892;  the  members  from 
the  Louisville  and  Little  Rock  Conferences  shall  constitute  one  class, 
and  their  terms  of  office  shall  expire  in  1894;  the  members  from  the 
Arkansas  and  White  River  Conferences  shall  constitute  one  class,  and 
their  terms  of  office  shall  expire  in  1896. 

At  its  annual  meeting  in  1890,  and  every  two  years  thereafter,  the 
Board  shall  elect,  as  now  provided  by  law,  subject  to  the  confirmation 
of  the  Conference  concerned,  members  to  take  the  places  of  those 
whose  terms  then  expired.  The  members  so  elected  shall  hold  their 
office  for  a  term  of  eight  years,  unless  sooner  removed  for  cause,  and 
until  their  successors  are  elected  and  confirmed.  When  vacancies  shall 
occur,  they  shall  be  filled  as  now  required  by  law,  but  only  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  unexpired  term  or  terms. 

Resolved,  That  the  Executive  Committee  are  hereby  directed  to  take 
all  steps  necessary  to  make  the  foregoing  a  part  of  the  organic  law  of 
the  university. 

From  this  action  it  appears  that  the  Board  of  Trust  under- 
stood that  in  order  to  make  changes  as  suggested  in  the  above 
report  a  change  must  be  wrought  in  the  organic  law  of  the  uni- 
versity.   The  resolution  of  the  Board  was,  therefore,  submitted 


Rights — New  Chancellor — Ex  Officio.  301 


to  the  Annual  Conferences,  which  alone  could  make  the  change, 
and  this  after  the  adoption  of  the  name  of  "Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity," showing  that  no  new  status  had  been  created  by  that 
incident. 

The  Tennessee  Conference  of  1888  asserted  its  rights  and 
those  of  the  other  constituent  Conferences  in  the  following 
action : 

Provided,  that  the  charter  of  the  university  be  so  amended  as  to 
secure  the  right  of  the  several  cooperating  Conferences  to  act  upon  all 
nominations  to  fill  vacancies  before  any  party  nominated  by  the  Board 
can  become  a  member  thereof;  and  provided,  also,  that  no  amendment 
to  the  charter  shall  affect  the  ex  officio  members  of  the  Board. 

The  North  Mississippi  and  the  Memphis  Conferences,  par- 
ticularly, indorsed  the  action  of  the  Tennessee  Conference, 
passing  it  as  an  identical  proviso.  The  charter  was  not 
changed. 

In  1893  James  H.  Kirkland  became  Chancellor  of  the  uni- 
versity. Being  the  son  of  a  Methodist  preacher,  and  having 
been  educated  as  a  son  of  the  Church,  it  was  felt  that  his  pro- 
motion to  this  important  post  was  a  guarantee  of  prosperity 
and  security  to  the  Church's  most  important  institution  of 
learning.  History  must  say  how  far  this  confidence  was  borne 
out  by  the  sequel. 

To  meet  the  wishes  of  the  incorporators,  the  bishops  and 
Chancellor  of  the  university  in  1895  were  declared  to  be  mem- 
bers ex  officio  of  the  Board  of  Trust.  Let  it  be  understood  that 
this  was  not  an  order  which  the  Board  had  a  right  to  institute, 
but  simply  the  declaration  of  a  constitutional  fact.  The  con- 
fidence which  afterwards  described  it  as  a  "courtesy  to  the 
bishops,"  to  be  withdrawn  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Board,  was 
characteristic  of  the  genius  of  the  drama.  The  powers  of  the 
bishops  under  the  charter  were  immensely  larger  than  those  of 
ex  officio  membership  on  the  Board*  At  the  session  of  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  October  23-28,  the  report  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Conference,  contained 
notice  of  the  resignation  of  J.  H.  Kirkland,  lay  representative 
of  the  Conference  on  the  Board  of  Trust.  It  was,  therefore, 
recommended  that  the  Conference  fill  the  vacancy  by  the  elec- 
tion of  E.  W.  Cole.   This  was  done.   Of  course  this  action  was 


302 


History  of  Methodism. 


accepted  by  the  Board  of  Trust.  It  could  not  have  done  other- 
wise, being  the  servant  of  the  Conferences  which  had  created 
it.  But  it  was  exactly  the  same  action  as  that  taken  by  the 
General  Conference  in  1910  in  electing  three  trustees  to  fill 
existing  vacancies.  This  will  be  clearly  seen  in  a  later  con- 
nection. 

The  growth  of  the  university  was  rapid,  and  soon  it  was  de- 
sired that  other  Conferences  should  be  admitted  to  member- 
ship in  the  corporation,  as  was  provided  for  in  the  Memphis 
resolutions.  Both  the  Church  and  the  then  majority  of  the 
Board  of  Trust  desired  the  university  to  become  the  central 
university  of  Southern  Methodism,  and  for  it  to  become  re- 
lated in  a  connectional  way  with  the  entire  Church  instead  of 
with  the  patronizing  Conferences;  and  it  was  determined  by 
all  parties  that  this  could  be  effectuated  by  having  the  uni- 
versity related  to  the  General  Conference,  and  thus  through 
the  General  Conference  all  the  Annual  Conferences  could  be- 
come patrons  of  the  university  in  law  as  in  fact.  The  Board 
of  Trust  as  early  as  1890  took  steps  to  bring  about  the  suc- 
cession  by  the  General  Conference  to  membership  in  the  cor- 
poration theretofore  held  and  enjoyed  by  the  patronizing  Con- 
ferences. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trust  held  in  1806  the  fol- 
lowing report  was  presented : 

Ycur  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  question  as  to  a  change 
in  the  manner  of  electing  trustees  beg  leave  to  report: 

1.  We  think  it  very  important  that  Vanderbilt  University  should 
be  closely  allied  to  the  whole  Church  as  the  central  university  of 
Southern  Methodism. 

2.  We  believe  this  can  be  partially  effected  by  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  trustees  who  are  elected  independently  of  our  eight  patronizing 
Conferences. 

3.  We  recommend  that  the  by-laws  be  amended  so  as  to  give  only 
one  representative  to  each  pf  the  eight  patronizing  Conferences,  and 
that  the  eight  vacancies  thus  created  be  filled  by  the  selection  of  rep- 
resentative men  without  geographical  limitation. 

4.  As  the  best  method  of  effecting  this  result,  we  suggest  that  each 
patronizing  Conference  be  requested  to  approve  this  change  in  the  by- 
laws and  adopt  the  reduction  from  two  to  one  representative. 

In  the  light  of  a  history  now  gone  to  permanent  record,  this 
document  suggests  an  extraordinary  contradiction.     Its  ad- 


General  Conference  Ownership. 


303 


missions  are  a  verdict  of  official  self-condemnation.  But  mat- 
ters were  progressing,  and  again  in  1897  the  following  report 
was  made  to  the  Board  of  Trust ; 

We  recommend  that,  in  order  that  Vanderbilt  University  may  be 
related  to  the  Church  as  the  central  university  of  Southern  Meth- 
odism and  may  assume  a  connectional  relationship  to  the  whole 
Church  as  the  crowning  feature  of  our  educational  system,  the  con- 
sent of  the  patronizing  Conferences  be  asked  to  the  proposition  that 
hereafter  the  Board  of  Trustees  be  selected  from  the  entire  Church, 
without  regard  to  geographical  limitation,  and  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
General  Conference.  In  order  to  secure  such  consent  the  Chancellor 
of  the  university  is  requested  to  submit  this  proposition  to  the  several 
patronizing  Conferences  at  the  next  annual  sessions.  We  further  sug- 
gest that  a  resolution  be  submitted  to  the  next  General  Conference  ask- 
ing the  adoption  of  this  university  as  the  central  institution  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

The  recommendations  of  the  above  report  were  adopted  by 
the  Board,  and  the  Chancellor  of  the  university  went  before 
the  patronizing  Conferences  and  requested  the  action  recom- 
mended, thus  recognizing  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Con- 
ferences. In  the  fall  of  1897  all  the  incorporating  Confer- 
ences, with  the  exception  of  the  Tennessee  and  the  Louisville, 
assented  to  the  arrangement.  Later  these  Conferences  gave 
their  adhesion  to  the  plan. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  held  in  Baltimore  in  May,  1898,  ap- 
peared a  committee  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  the  university  and 
presented  the  following  memorial : 

To  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
in  session  in  Baltimore,  May,  1898: 

The  undersigned,  constituting  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Board 
of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University  to  make  a  special  report  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  beg  leave  to 
present  this  communication  with  reference  to  the  university  and  its 
relation  to  the  whole  Church.  Vanderbilt  University,  as  is  well  known, 
has  heretofore  been  the  central  institution  of  eight  patronizing  Confer- 
ences. The  title  to  the  property  is  vested  in  a  Board,  to  be  held  in 
trust  for  these  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
For  several  years  the  Board  has  had  under  consideration  a  plan  to 
make  the  university  entirely  connectional  and  relate  it  directly  to  the 
whole  Church.  The  plan  proposed  is  to  have  the  patronizing  Confer- 
ences transfer  their  rights  in  the  university  to  the  General  Conference 


3(H 


History  of  Methodism. 


and  to  have  the  General  Conference,  by  proper  resolution,  accept  the 
patronage  of  the  university  and  consent  to  assume  toward  this  enter- 
prise the  same  relation  heretofore  held  by  the  separate  Conferences. 
The  Board  of  Trust  has  officially  expressed  its  approval  of  this  plan, 
and  most  of  the  patronizing  Conferences  have  done  the  same  thing. 

By  the  charter  of  the  university  the  Board  of  Trust  is  vested  with 
the  power  and  obligation  to  fill  its  own  vacancies;  but  the  election  of 
any  member  is  not  valid  under  the  law  of  the  university  until  said 
member  has  been  confirmed  by  the  Conference  which  he  is  designed  to 
represent.  Under  the  new  plan  the  Board  would  be  at  liberty  to  se- 
lect its  members  without  geographical  restrictions  of  any  kind,  and 
the  General  Conference  would  confirm  or  reject  the  appointment.  This 
duty  could  be  exercised  either  by  the  General  Conference  as  a  body,  or 
it  could  be  delegated  by  the  Conference  to  some  Board,  itself  the  crea- 
ture of  the  General  Conference.  Naturally  the  Board  of  Education 
will  be  thought  of  in  this  connection.  This  Board  meets  every  year 
and  is  likely  to  be  charged  more  and  more  with  the  oversight  of  our 
institutions  of  learning.  It  is  now  trying  to  devise  methods  for  cor- 
relating all  our  colleges  and  universities,  and  it  would  be  appropriate 
for  the  General  Conference  to  exercise  its  control  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity largely  through  the  Board.  In  that  manner  vacancies  in  the 
Board  of  Trust  of  the  university  could  be  filled  every  year,  and  it  would 
not  be  necessary  to  wait  four  years  for  action  that  might  be  promptly 
needed. 

As  a  committee,  therefore,  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity, we  beg  to  present  this  matter  to  the  General  Conference  and 
invite  such  action  as  may  be  adjudged  right  and  proper. 

The  action  of  the  General  Conference  in  accepting  this  trans- 
fer was  embodied  in  the  following  resolution : 

1.  That  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  hereby  accepts  the  proposed  relation  and  control  of  the  Vander- 
bilt University  and  commits  to  the  General  Board  of  Education  the 
confirmation  of  all  trustees  selected  by  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vander- 
bilt University. 

2.  That  this  resolution  take  effect  as  soon  as  the  consent  of  all  the 
present  patronizing  Conferences  has  been  obtained,  all  the  necessary 
legal  steps  taken,  and  preliminary  details  arranged. 

In  view  of  this  record,  the  following  judicial  analysis  of 
the  status  of  the  trust  is  unescapable:  By  the  action  of  the 
patronizing  Conferences  in  transferring  their  rights  in  the 
university  to  the  General  Conference  and  the  latter's  accept- 
ance of  the  same  and  also  the  control  of  the  university — which 
was  done  at  the  request  of  the  Board  of  Trust — the  General 


The  "Member"  of  the  University, 


305 


Conference  became  the  member  of  Vanderbilt  University  and 
exercised  the  right  of  the  Conference  to  con  linn  nominations 
of  the  Board,  and  did  so  confirm  them  through  its  Board  of 
Education  until  1910.  From  the  founding  of  the  institution 
up  to  that  year  the  ownership  of  the  Church  was  always  recog- 
nized by  the  Board  of  Trust.  In  addition  to  the  history-and- 
charter-witnessed  membership  of  the  patronizing  Conferences, 
it  is  a  fact  that  the  founders  of  the  university  vested  in  the 
bishops  visitorial  power,  which  is  the  power  of  superintend- 
ency  and  correction.  This  power  is  derived  from  the  ninth 
paragraph  of  the  Memphis  resolutions.  But  the  bishops  did 
not  find  it  necessary  to  exercise  this  power  until  1910,  and 
until  after  the  course  of  the  Board  of  Trust  in  resisting  the 
action  of  the  General  Conference,  hereinafter  to  be  noted. 

The  members  of  the  College  of  Bishops  had  been  in  some 
doubt  prior  to  1894  as  to  whether  the  bishops  were  members 
of  the  Board  of  Trust  ex  officio  as  a  charter  right  or  whether 
the  Board  of  Trust  should  be  composed  of  members  elected  or 
confirmed  by  the  Conferences  and  the  College  of  Bishops  joint- 
ly. In  order  to  settle  any  doubt  on  this  point  and  to  make 
clear  what  was  regarded  by  the  then  existing  Board  as  their 
charter  rights,  the  following  by-law  was  adopted : 

Each  of  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  is 
ex  officio  declared  to  be  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trust,  and  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  university  is  also  by  his  office  a  member  of  said  Board 
of  Trust. 

At  a  later  day  this  resolution,  which,  so  far  as  it  related  to 
the  bishops,  was  passed  and  stood  as  an  interpretation  of  the 
charter  of  the  university,  was  described  as  a  courtesy  and  was 
repealed  by  the  majority.  But  subsequent  to  the  adoption  of 
this  by-law  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Church  were  recog- 
nized by  the  Board  of  Trust  by  virtue  of  their  position  estab- 
lished under  the  charter.  In  1905  the  by-law  recognizing  their 
ex  officio  relation  was  rescinded,  and  five  of  the  effective  bish- 
ops, in  the  order  of  seniority;  were  nominated  to  the  Board  of 
Education  for  confirmation. 

And  now  is  seen  the  first  step  in  the  complicated  plan  to 
dissociate  the  university  from  the  Church  and  alienate  its 
titles.  Little  was  this  plan  then  suspected  by  those  on  the 
20 


30« 


History  of  Methodism. 


outside.  To  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of  1905  the  Chancellor 
submitted  a  report  advising  that  a  new  charter  be  procured 
for  the  institution.  The  announcement  of  these  plans  brought 
on  the  first  stage  of  that  long  contest  between  the  Church  and 
the  disloyal  members  of  the  Board.  The  protests  against  the 
proposed  new  charter  were  loud  and  general.  Distrust  of  the 
management  of  the  university  was  frankly  and  generally  ex- 
pressed. Certain  of  the  patronizing  Conferences  memorialized 
the  General  Conference  to  be  held  in  1906  to  consider  and  act 
upon  all  matters  involving  the  ownership  and  control  of  the 
university,  and  especially  to  direct  what  changes,  if  any,  should 
be  made  in  the  terms  of  the  original  charter  and  to  set  on  foot 
such  plans  as  would  more  perfectly  secure  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  guarantee  the  support  of  the  university.  It  was 
also  demanded  of  the  Board  of  Trust  that  application  for  a 
new  charter  be  deferred  until  after  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Conference.  As  a  result  of  this  action  the  General  Conference 
of  1906,  as  already  related,  ordered  a  commission  to  inquire 
into  the  question  of  ownership,  charter  details,  and  relations 
of  the  bishops  to  the  university. 

In  accordance  with  the  action  of  the  General  Conference,  the 
commission,  whose  constitution  has  already  been  described, 
met  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  August  15,  1906,  and  later  in  the  same 
city  on  October  24-29,  inclusive.  This  commission  took  careful 
survey  of  the  whole  case  and  reported  its  findings  as  follows : 

(a)  That  Vanderbilt  University  was  established  and  was  managed 
by  the  patronizing  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  up  to  1898;  that  up  to  said  date  said  patronizing  Conferences 
were  the  members  of  the  corporation;  held  the  right  to  select  its  trus- 
tees and  control  its  polity  so  long  as  it  regards  the  purpose  of  the 
trust  and  violates  no  condition  imposed  by  any  donor. 

(ft)  That  no  further  action  was  necessary  to  transfer  the  rights  of 
the  patronizing  Conferences  to  the  General  Conference,  which  had  be- 
come, and  was,  the  successor  to  the  rights  of  the  patronizing  Confer- 
ences; but  in  order  that  formal  recognition  of  this  transfer  might  be 
made  and  that  the  said  patronizing  Conferences  might  take  such  steps 
as  would  forever  quiet  the  right  and  title  of  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  act  as  the  member  of  said 
corporation,  they  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution: 

"Whereas  by  resolution  prior  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  South,  of  1898,  this  Conference  memorialized 


Action  of  the  Vanderbilt  Commission.  :\()7 


the  General  Conference  to  take  over  the  charge  of  the  responsibility  of 
Vanderbilt  University;  and  whereas  the  said  General  Conference  has 
agreed  to  do  so  and  has  done  so,  which  has  been  approved  by  the  as- 
sent of  this  Conference;  now  to  confirm  the  original  purpose  of  this 
Conference  and  to  unify  the  title  in  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  this  Conference  do  now  cede,  and  there  is  hereby 
ceded,  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  all  rights,  privileges,  and  authority  which  this  Conference  had 
as  a  member  of  the  corporation  known  as  Vanderbilt  University." 

(c)  Determined  that  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  were,  by  the  action  of  the  founders — to  wit,  the  patronizing 
Conferences  and  the  Memphis  Convention — made  common-law  visitors 
of  the  university,  defining  their  duties  to  be  judicial,  not  executive  or 
legislative.  They  are  "to  judge  whether  the  acts  of  the  trustees  are 
within  the  law  of  the  institution  and  whether  their  by-laws  are  in  the 
spirit  of  the  trust."  The  visitor  is  in  no  sense  above  the  law  of  the 
institution,  but  his  judgment  within  the  law  is  necessarily  supreme. 

The  patronizing  Conferences  promptly  acquiesced  in  the 
findings  of  the  commission  and  adopted  resolutions  in  con 
formity  therewith.  The  bishops  also  formally  agreed  to  act 
under  the  same  findings.  The  Board  of  Trust  of  the  university, 
upon  receiving  the  report  of  the  commission,  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Whereas  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  in  session  at  Birmingham,  Ala.,  May,  1906,  appointed  a  commis- 
sion to  report  upon  the  following  matters: 

1.  To  inquire  into  and  determine  the  present  relations  of  Vander- 
bilt University  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South; 

2.  To  take  legal  steps,  if  necessary,  to  perfect  the  transfer  of  the 
university  from  the  patronizing  Conferences  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South; 

3.  To  define  the  charter  rights  of  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South. 

And  whereas  the  commission  has  concluded  its  labors  and  reported 
the  result  of  its  deliberations  to  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity ; 

Resolved:  1.  That  we  cordially  receive  the  same  and  direct  that  it 
be  filed  with  the  records  of  this  Board. 

2.  That  we  hereby  express  our  appreciation  of  the  ability  and  fidelity 
with  which  the  members  of  the  commission  have  discharged  their  im- 
portant duties. 

3.  That,  recognizing  and  rejoicing  in  the  ownership  of  the  Church 
in  the  university  and  all  the  responsibilities  arising  therefrom,  we 


308 


History  of  Methodism. 


welcome  any  supervision  by  the  College  of  Bishops  that  may  aid  us 
in  executing  the  great  trust  committed  to  our  hands  so  as  to  insure 
the  observance  of  the  charter,  the  conditions  of  specific  gifts,  and  the 
statutes  of  the  State. 

If  one  has  been  made  to  wonder  at  other  actions  recorded 
in  this  case,  in  the  light  of  subsequent  facts  he  can  but  be 
amazed  at  the  complacency  and  disingenuousness  of  the  above. 
It  particularly  forms  a  strange  juncture  with  a  bill,  originat- 
ing with  and  publicly  advocated  by  the  Chancellor,  which  was 
attempted  to  be  passed  through  the  Tennessee  Legislature, 
which  bill  was  at  the  time  described  by  the  author  of  this  his- 
tory as  having  been  framed  "with  a  view  to  accommodating 
between  Vanderbilt  and  the  Peabody  School  an  alliance  which 
could  only  be  hurtful  to,  and  finally  destructive  of,  the 
Church's  interest  in  the  former."  The  judgment  of  the  legis- 
lature was  formed  with  great  clearness  from  the  representa- 
tions  then  made,  and  the  bill  was  ignominiously  defeated. 

The  report  of  the  Vanderbilt  Commission  was  presented  to 
the  General  Conference  at  its  session  in  Asheville,  N.  C,  in 
May,  1910,  and  the  following  action  was  taken  thereon : 

Resolved:  1.  That  this  General  Conference  hereby  accepts  the  re- 
port of  the  Vanderbilt  Commission  as  a  definition  of  the  rights  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  Vanderbilt  University;  more- 
over, that  it  accepts  the  judgment  of  the  commission  that  the  College 
of  Bishops  is  a  board  of  common-law  visitors  of  the  university;  and, 
furthermore,  that  it  accepts  the  finding  of  the  commission  that  the 
General  Conference  has  the  right  to  select  the  Board  of  Trustees  in 
such  manner  as  it  may  elect,  either  by  direct  election  by  the  Confer- 
ence itself  or  through  such  agency  or  agencies  as  it  may  designate. 

2.  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  General  Conference  that  its  right  to 
select  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University  and  fill  vacancies 
in  the  same  should  now  be  exercised,  and  hereafter  at  its  discretion; 
and  it  being  ascertained  that  vacancies  now  exist  in  the  Board  of 
Trust  of  said  university,  the  following-named  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  are  hereby  elected  to  fill  said  vacancies 
— namely:    .    .  . 

3.  That,  following  this  election,  the  General  Conference  will  for  the 
future  continue  the  method  of  choosing  the  trustees'  adopted  by  the 
General  Conference  held  at  Baltimore  in  1898,  when  it  committed  "to 
the  General  Board  of  Education  the  confirmation  of  all  trustees  by  the 
Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University." 

4.  That  the  General  Conference  approves  the  action  of  the  bishops  in  en- 
tering upon  the  discharge  of  their  duties  as  visitors  of  the  university. 


General  Conference  Takes  Action.  .'>()!> 


5.  That  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  shall  provide  whatever  means  may  be  necessary  to  sustain  the 
finding  of  the  Vanderbilt  Commission  if  it  shall  at  any  time  be  called 
in  question  in  the  civil  courts.  In  such  event  the  bishops  of  the  Church 
are  hereby  instructed  to  take  whatever  steps  they  may  deem  necessary 
to  maintain  the  rights  and  claims  of  the  Church. 

At  this  time  there  existed  three  vacancies  in  the  Board  of 
Trust,  and  to  fill  these  the  General  Conference  named  Rev.  V. 
A.  Godbey,  D.D.,  of  Texas;  Hon.  N.  E.  Harris,  of  Georgia;  and 
Judge  Albert  W.  Biggs,  of  Tennessee.  The  Board  of  Trust  at 
its  meeting  on  June  11,  12,  1910,  declined  to  receive  these  mem- 
bers and  in  lieu  thereof  named  the  following — viz.:  Claude 
Waller,  of  Nashville,  Tenn. ;  Robert  F.  Jackson,  of  Nashville, 
Tenn.;  and  James  A.  Robins,  of  McKenzie,  Tenn.  Immedi- 
ately thereafter  the  Board  rescinded  the  by-law  adopted  in 
1898  and  confirmed  by  the  General  Conference,  requiring  the 
confirmation  of  all  members  of  the  Board  of  Trust  by  the 
Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
This  action  was  clearty  meant  by  the  majority  of  the  Board 
of  Trust  as  a  defiance  of  the  Church,  and  it  constituted  the 
first  act  absolutely  denying  Church  ownership.  The  following- 
named  members  of  the  Board  of  Trust  voted  in  the  affirmative 
on  this  action — viz. :  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  Mr.  Allen  R.  Car- 
ter, Judge  W.  C.  Ratcliffe,  Mr.  Samuel  Cupples,  Mr.  William 
L.  Moose,  Mr.  W.  T.  Sanders,  Prof.  W.  H.  Hughes,  Chancellor 
J.  H.  Kirkland,  Mr.  W.  R.  Cole,  Mr.  G.  M.  Neely,  Rev.  G.  B. 
Winton,  Mr.  Charles  N.  Burch,  Mr.  R.  F.  Maddox,  Rev.  C.  W. 
Byrd,  Mr.  J.  C.  McReynolds,  Mr.  E.  J.  Buffington,  Mr.  N.  Bax- 
ter, Mr.  G.  W.  Martin,  and  Mr.  E.  H.  Jones.  The  following- 
named  members  of  the  Board  voted  "No" :  Bishop  A.  W.  Wil- 
son, Mr.  John  R.  Pepper,  Maj.  R.  W.  Millsaps,  Rev.  E.  B.  Chap- 
pell,  Rev.  W.  J.  Young,  Rev.  R.  W.  Browder,  Rev.  W.  D.  Brad- 
field,  and  Rev.  J.  H.  Dye. 

Credulity  and  consistency  swooned  together  in  the  presence 
of  this  action  of  the  majority  of  the  Board,  taken  immediately 
after  the  above-recorded  vote: 

The  right  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  to  appoint  the  trustees  of  this  university  being  denied 
by  this  Board  of  Trustees,  great  unrest  is  likely  to  follow  to  the  damage 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  the  university  and  the  Church.  To  allay  as  much  as  possible  this 
unrest  and  to  guard  as  far  as  possible  the  interests  of  the  university, 
this  Board  hereby  declares  the  trust  it  holds  is  a  trust  for  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  that  Vanderbilt  University  belongs 
to  said  Church. 

It  was  now  evident  to  all  that  the  Church  must  appeal  to 
Caesar  against  its  disobedient  and  inscrutable  agents.  The 
College  of  Bishops,  therefore,  met  at  Nashville  on  the  twelfth 
day  of  July,  1010,  as  visitors  of  the  university,  to  consider  the 
action  of  the  Board  of  Trust  in  declining  to  recognize  the 
trustees  elected  by  the  General  Conference  and  in  proceeding 
to  elect  other  members  contrary  to  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
university.  Reviewing  this  action,  the  bishops  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Resolved,  That  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
acting  as  a  Board  of  Visitors  and  as  representatives  of  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Church,  refuse  to  approve  the  action  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  and  declare  it  null  and  void. 

A  secondary  stage  in  the  plan  of  alienation  began  now  to 
develop.  A  long-nourished  scheme,  for  colluding  the  Vander- 
bilt foundation  with  that  of  the  George  Peabody  Fund  for  a 
Teachers'  University  at  Nashville,  came  to  light.  Reference 
to  a  certain  bill  meant  to  facilitate  this  collusion,  but  which 
was  defeated  before  the  legislature,  has  already  been  referred 
to.  The  unauthorized  negotiations  with  the  George  Peabody 
trustees  became  the  basis  of  a  legal  appeal  by  the  bishops  for 
injunction  and  judgment  to  the  Chancery  Court  of  Davidson 
County,  Tenn.  The  bishops  in  their  complaint  charged  that  \ 
majority  of  the  Board  of  Trust  were  vltra  vires  the  power  of 
said  Board  and  contrary,  as  they  are  advised,  to  the  charter 
and  fundamental  law  of  the  corporation.  They  charged  that  by 
its  action  as  aforesaid  the  Board  had  violated  its  trust  and 
repudiated  the  right  of  the  patronizing  Conferences  as  the 
first  members  of  the  corporation  and  the  right  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  as  represented  by  its  General  Con- 
ference as  their  successor,  and  had  attempted  to  set  itself  up 
as  above  the  charter  and  the  law.  They  charged  that  the  Board, 
in  assuming  the  authority  to  elect  its  own  successors,  had 
usurped  the  right  of  the  General  Conference  as  the  member  of 


Trustees'  Action  Vetoed — injunction. 


311 


said  corporation  and  had  assumed  the  said  membership  to  be  in 
the  present  trustees,  who  were  then  claiming  that  they  were  a 
self-perpetuating  body;  that  by  said  action  in  asserting  its 
right  to  self-perpetuation  it  had  attempted  to  sever  all  bonds 
connecting  it  with  the  Church.  As  visitors,  relators  declared 
that  the  aforesaid  action  upon  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Trust 
was  illegal  and  that  they  had  so  adjudged  and  declared.  Messrs. 
Harris,  Godbey,  and  Biggs  joined  in  this  complaint  and  de- 
clared that  the  defendants,  Waller,  Jackson,  and  Robins,  were 
usurping  the  offices  to  which  themselves  had  been  elected. 

The  bishops  further  complained  that  it  was- the  purpose  of 
the  Board  of  Trust  not  only  to  consider  and  to  act  upon  a 
proposed  affiliation  of  Vanderbilt  University  with  the  George 
Peabody  College  for  Teachers,  the  exact  proposal  being  un- 
known to  them,  the  real  supervisors  of  the  university,  but  that 
it  embraced  not  only  the  interchange  of  work  between  the  said 
universities,  but  also  the  exchange  or  sale  of  real  property  be- 
longing to  the  Vanderbilt  corporation.  The  bishops,  there- 
fore, asked  that  it  be  adjudged  and  decreed  that  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  and  through  its  General  Confer- 
ence, should  be  entitled  as  a  member  of  Vanderbilt  University 
to  select,  nominate,  or  confirm,  either  by  itself  or  through  its 
General  Board  of  Education,  members  of  the  Board  of  Trust 
of  said  university ;  that  it  be  adjudged  and  decreed  that  Van- 
derbilt University  was  established  by  the  patronizing  Confer- 
ences of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  as  alleged  in 
the  bill,  and  that  it  is  being  maintained  and  patronized  by  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  by  the  General  Con- 
ference thereof,  and  that  the  General  Conference  as  the  repre- 
sentative governing  body  of  the  said  •  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  has  the  power  and  authority  and  nas  exercised 
the  option  to  elect  and  provide  for  the  election  of  the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Trust  and  to  fill  vacancies  therein. 

The  bishops  further  asked  that  a  writ  of  injunction  issue 
enjoining  the  defendant  Board  of  Trust  from  holding  or  at- 
tempting to  hold  any  special  or  regular  meeting  of  said  Board 
without  notice  to  the  relators  Harris,  Godbey,  and  Biggs,  and 
without  permitting  the  said  relators  to  participate  in  said 
meetings;  also  that  an  injunction  issue  enjoining  defendants 


312 


History  of  Methodism. 


Waller,  Jackson,  and  Kobins  from  meeting  with  said  Board  of 
Trust  or  exercising  the  duties  and)  privileges  as  members  there- 
of; also  that  the  defendant  Board  of  Trust.be  enjoined  from 
selling,  transferring,  or  disposing  of  or  exchanging  to  George 
Peabody  College  for  Teachers  any  part  of  the  real  property 
belonging  to  the  defendant  Vanderbilt  University;  and  that 
such  other  further  and  general  relief  be  granted  as  the  facts 
of  the  case  may  demand  and  as  to  equity  and  good  conscience 
belong. 

The  distinguished  and  efficient  counsel  of  the  Church  in  this 
celebrated  case  consisted  of  the  firms  of  Fitzhugh  and  Biggs, 
of  Memphis,  Tenn. ;  Percy  D.  Maddin,  of  Nashville,  Tenn. ; 
Harris  and  Harris,  of  Macon,  Ga. ;  and  Edward  C.  O'Rear,  of 
Kentucky.  The  cause  of  the  Church  was  duly  presented  and 
argued  by  these  distinguished  jurists;  and  in  answer  to  the 
prayer  of  their  client,  the  honorable  Chancery  Court,  Judge 
John  Allison  presiding,  issued  a  decree  of  injunction  and  later 
handed  down  a  fuller  mandate,  as  follows: 

1.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  acting  through  certain 
of  its  Annual  Conferences,  established  and  legally  founded  the  Central 
University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  the  name  of 
which  was  subsequently  changed  to  Vanderbilt  University.  The  ob- 
jects and  purposes  of  said  charity  so  established  were  set  forth  in  what 
is  known  as  the  Memphis  resolutions,  which  were  adopted  by  repre- 
sentatives of  said  Conferences  in  a  convention  held  in  Memphis  in 
January,  1872;  and  these  resolutions  constitute  the  true  articles  of 
foundation  of  said  charity  and  lawful  conditions  annexed  to  every  gift 
made  to  the  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  or  to  Vanderbilt  University. 

2.  To  carry  out  the  purposes  and  objects  of  the  Annual  Conferences, 
as  expressed  in  the  Memphis  resolutions,  and  to  make  perpetual  and 
permanent  the  trust  thereby  established,  the  parties  named  in  the 
sixth  section  of  the  Memphis  resolutions,  acting  as  representatives  of 
the  said  Annual  Conferences,  secured  a  charter  of  incorporation,  the 
said  charter  being  granted  under  Chapter  54  of  the  Acts  of  1870-71  by 
the  Chancery  Court  of  Davidson  County,  Tenn. 

3.  The  Memphis  resolutions  are  the  very  essence  of  said  charter  and 
embody  the  real  life,  substance,  and  meaning  thereof,  and  therefore  in 
no  sense  could  be  held  to  be  surplusage. 

4.  The  only  effect  cf  the  amendment  to  the  charter  of  the  Central 
University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  made  on  the 
sixteenth  day  of  June,  1873,  was  to  change  the  name  cf  the  corpora- 


Text  of  Injun clion. 


313 


tion  from  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
to  Vanderbilt  University,  and  not  to  eliminate  from  the  charter  the 
Memphis  resolutions  or  any  part  thereof. 

5.  The  effect  of  securing  the  charter  of  incorporation  was  to  make 
the  Church,  through  its  Annual  Conferences,  the  member  of  the  cor- 
poration which  was  simply  the  holder  of  the  naked  legal  title  to  the 
property  donated,  bequeathed,  or  devised  to  it  in  trust  for  the  purpose 
of  more  conveniently  carrying  into  effect  the  purposes  and  objects  of 
the  founders,  as  set  forth  in  the  Memphis  resolutions;  the  members  of 
the  Board  of  Trust  were  never,  and  are  not  now,  the  members  of  the 
corporation  and  do  not  possess,  and  have  never  possessed,  the  right  and 
power  to  fill  vacancies  in  said  Board  of  Trust;  but  the  patronizing  An- 
nual Conferences  representing  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
had  the  right  under  said  charter  and  under  the  law  to  fill  vacancies  on 
said  Board. 

6.  By  the  eighth  section  of  the  Memphis  resolutions,  incorporated 
in  the  charter,  provision  was  made  for  giving  to  other  Annual  Con- 
ferences of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  which  might  there- 
after cooperate  with  these  Conferences  which  founded  said  institu- 
tion, an  equal  voice  in  the  control  of  said  institution,  and  such  Annual 
Conferences  then  cooperating  and  such  others  as  might  thereafter  be 
admitted  to  membership  had  the  legal  right  to  fill  all  vacancies  that 
might  occur  on  said  Board. 

7.  The  original  patronizing  Conferences  and  those  which  had  be- 
come members  of  the  corporation  prior  to  1898  did  in  that  year  (with 
the  exception  of  the  Louisville  Conference)  transfer  their  rights  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  which 
is  superior  to,  and  is  composed  of,  members  chosen  by  the  various  An- 
nual Conferences  of  the  Church,  the  said  General  Conference  being  the 
representative  governing  body  and  the  highest  judicatory  of  that 
Church;  and  thereafter,  in  the  same  year,  the  Louisville  Conference 
transferred  and  ceded  its  rights  to  the  General  Conference.  In  1898 
the  said  General  Conference  became  the  legal  member  of  said  corpora- 
tion, with  right  and  power  to  fill  all  vacancies  on  said  Board  of  Trust 
and  to  exercise  all  other  rights  as  a  member  under  the  law. 

8.  The  right  of  filling  vacancies  on  the  Board  of  Trust  at  its  option 
was  exercised  by  the  General  Conference  at  its  meeting  in  Asheville  in 
1910  by  the  election  of  the  said  Messrs.  Harris,  Godbey,  and  Biggs  to 
fill  the  vacancies  then  existing  upon  said  Board,  and  by  virtue  of  said 
action  of  the  General  Conference  said  relators  became  legal  members 
of  the  Board  of  Trust;  and  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vander- 
bilt University  on  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  of  June,  1910,  in  refusing 
to  recognize  them  as  members  of  the  Board  of  Trust  was  illegal,  con- 
trary to  the  fundamental  law  of  the  corporation,  and  ultra  vires  the 
authority  of  said  Board  of  Trust. 

9.  The  action  of  the  Board  of  Trust  in  June,  1910,  in  attempting  to 
elect  the  defendants,  Messrs.  Jackson,  Waller,  and  Robins,  members  of 


r>14  History  of  Methodism. 


the  Board  of  Trust  in  place  of  the  said  Messrs.  Harris,  Godbey,  and 
Biggs,  and  in  attempting  to  fill  vacancies  occurring  in  said  Board  of 
Trust,  after  the  action  of  the  General  Conference  in  May,  1910,  was 
illegal  and  void  and  conferred  no  right,  power,  or  authority  on  the  per- 
sons so  attempted  to  be  elected. 

10.  The  Central  University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  now  Vanderbilt  University,  was  established  and  founded  in  the 
legal  sense  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  acting  by  and 
through  certain  of  its  Annual  Conferences;  said  university  from  its 
establishment  has  been,  and  is  now,  being  maintained  and  patronized 
by  the  said  Church  in  the  true  sense,  meaning,  and  spirit  of  an  act 
passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  being  Chap- 
ter 6  of  the  Acts  of  1895;  said  act  in  all  respects  is  a  valid  and  con- 
stitutional law;  as  applied  to  this  case,  it  merely  furnishes  additional 
confirmation  of  the  legal  right  conferred  upon  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  1898,  as  the  successor  to 
the  Annual  Conferences  of  said  Church. 

11.  The  ninth  section  of  the  Memphis  resolutions  conferred  general 
visitorial  power  on  the  College  of  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  of  said  university  and  all  its  departments;  the  visito- 
rial power  was  not  vested  in  the  corporation  or  in  the  Board  of  Trust, 
and  all  gifts  and  donations  which  have  been  made,  either  to  the  Cen- 
tral University  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  or  to  Vander- 
bilt University,  are  subject  to  such  visitorial  power;  said  power  was 
validly  exercised  by  the  College  of  Bishops  in  annulling  the  action  of 
the  Board  of  Trust  in  June,  1910,  as  set  forth  in  the  original  bill. 

12.  The  corporation  can  pass  no  by-law  inconsistent  with  the  Mem- 
phis resolutions,  or  the  charter,  or  the  general  laws  of  the  land,  but  is 
required  to  pass  such  by-laws  as  may  be  necessary  and  proper  to  carry 
out  the  purposes  and  objects  for  which  said  corporation  was  formed,  as 
expressed  in  the  Memphis  resolutions. 

13.  The  by-law  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trust  in  June,  1910,  providing 
that  all  vacancies  thereafter  occuring  in  said  Board  should  be  filled 
by  it,  is  contrary  to  the  charter  of  said  corporation,  to  the  articles  of 
foundation  and  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  is  illegal  and  void;  the  pre- 
liminary injunction  granted  restraining  the  defendants,  Messrs.  Jack- 
son, Waller,  and  Robins,  from  acting  as  members  of  the  Board  is  made 
perpetual,  and  the  university  and  the  defendant  trustees  are  forever  en- 
joined from  failing  or  refusing  to  recognize  the  said  Messrs.  Harris, 
Godbey,  and  Biggs  as  members  of  the  Board  of  Trust  or  interfering 
in  any  way  with  the  free  and  full  exercise  of  their  rights  and  powers 
as  duly  elected  members  of  said  Board. 

14.  And  the  defendant  trustees  are  enjoined  from  admitting  or  at- 
tempting to  admit  to  membership  in  the  Board  any  person  or  persons  not 
elected  or  chosen  in  the  manner  authorized  by  the  General  Conference 
of  said  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  from  exercising  or  as- 
serting the  right  to  perpetuate  themselves  in  power  and  office  or  inter- 


Appeal — One  Million  Dollars.  ;5l.r> 


fering  with  the  exclusive  right  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  itself  or  through  its  designated 
agencies,  to  fill  all  vacancies  occurring  in  said  Board. 

From  this  decree  the  majority  of  the  trustees  appealed  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee,  having  retained  legal  counsel  and 
advice  for  that  purpose.  Pending  the  hearing  of  this  appeal — 
that  is  to  say,  on  May  1,  1913 — Chancellor  Kirkland,  on  behalf 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vander- 
bilt  University,  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie, 
soliciting  him  to  give  a  million  dollars  to  Vanderbilt  Univer 
sity  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  and  endowing  the  Medical 
Department.  To  this  letter  Mr.  Carnegie  replied  on  May  20 
as  follows: 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  have  given  careful  consideration  to  your  letter  of 
May  1,  written  on  behalf  of  the  trustees  of  Vanderbilt  University,  in- 
viting me  to  contribute  a  million  dollars  for  the  establishment  upon  a 
sound  foundation  of  a  medical  school  of  modern  type  in  the  South. 
After  consultation  with  those  familiar  with  medical  education  in  this 
country,  I  am  convinced  that  the  sum  of  money  you  mention  could  be 
wisely  devoted  to  a  medical  school  in  Nashville.  I  approve  thoroughly 
your  suggestion  that  this  gift  be  conditioned  on  the  appointment  of  a 
small  board  of  seven  persons  to  govern  the  medical  school,  who  shall  be 
chosen  absolutely  without  reference  to  denominational  considerations 
and  purely  upon  the  ground  of  fitness  for  their  duties. 

There  is,  however,  one  factor  in  your  university  situation  which 
leaves  the  policy  for  the  future  in  doubt.  A  suit  is  now  before  the 
courts  to  test  the  question  whether  the '  university  shall  be  governed 
by  an  independent,  self-perpetuating  board,  as  at  present,*  or  whether 
the  trustees  shall  be  chosen  by  the  representatives  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  with  which  denomination  the  university  has 
been  since  its  beginning  in  sympathetic  relations.  Should  the  trustees 
finally  receive  an  adverse  verdict,  I  understand  that  the  university  will 
then  be  under  distinctive  denominational  control.  This  result  would 
seem  to  me  to  be  unfortunate  for  the  future  progress  and  well-being  of 
the  institution.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  wise  for  any  sect  to  con- 
trol educational  institutions,  such  as  universities,  whether  the  organiza- 
tion be  a  Methodist  Conference  or  a  Presbyterian  Assembly  or  a  Catholic 
order. 

For  this  reason,  therefore,  while  I  am  anxious  to  make  this  gift, 


*This  observation  was  true  in  fact,  for  by  this  time  the  majority  of 
the  Board  of  the  University  had  usurped  every  power  of  the  corporation 
and  had  become  a  law  to  itself. 


316 


History  of  Methodism. 


which,  I  believe,  would  be  of  high  value  to  the  whole  South,  I  hesitate 
to  do  so  until  the  question  of  denominational  control  has  been  settled 
by  the  courts. 

I  make  the  following  proposition  for  your  consideration:  I  will  fur- 
nish the  $200,000  now  needed  for  the  laboratories,  and  the  remaining 
$800,000  shall  remain  in  the  custody  of  the  Carnegie  Corporation  at 
Xew  York,  interest  at  four  per  cent  to  be  paid  to  the  university  for  the 
use  of  the  medical  school  until  such  time  as  the  question  of  denomi- 
national control  has  been  settled  by  the  court  of  last  resort,  its  final  dis- 
position to  be  then  determined.  .  .  .  Andrew  Carnegie.* 

Under  the.se  conditions  the  case,  on  final  appeal  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Tennessee,  came  to  a  hearing.  After  lengthy 
presentations  and  arguments  on  both  sides,  the  court  handed 
down  on  March  21,  1914,  a  decision  which  reversed  practically 
every  point  in  the  decree  of  the  Chancery  Court.  The  Su- 
preme Court  held  that  the  Church  was  neither  the  founder  nor 
owner  of  Vanderbilt  University;  that  Cornelius  Vanderbilt 
was  its  founder ;  that  the  Board  of  Trust  was  an  independent, 
self-perpetuating  Board ;  that  the  bishops  had  no  power  over 
the  corporation  whatever,  being  neither  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  common-law  visitors,  nor  otherwise  by  the  charter 
invested  with  authority.  The  sole  and  single  vestige  of  right 
decreed  to  the  Church  was  that  it  should  exercise  the  per- 
functory office  of  confirming  the  selections  made  by  the  Board 
of  Trustees  to  fill  vacancies  as  they  occurred.  Should  the 
Church  refuse  to  act  upon  such  selections,  it  was  to  be  adjudged 
guilty  of  contumacy,  and  the  selections  of  the  Board  became 


*The  Board  of  Trust,  or  rather  the  reactionary  majority  thereof,  ac- 
cepted this  gift,  with  all  its  discrediting  references  to  the  Church. 
When  the  bishops  met  as  a  Board  of  Visitors  in  June,  1913,  the  record 
of  the  action  of  the  trustees  was  requested.  The  request  was  denied. 
But  a  report  of  the  minority  of  the  trustees  was  submitted,  which 
brought  the  information  up  in  official  form.  With  this  information 
before  them,  the  bishops  vetoed  the  action  of  the  trustees  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  a  breach  of  the  trust  committed  to  them  by  the  Memphis 
Convention;  that  it  was  ultra  vires  their  power  to  accept  a  gift  under 
such  conditions;  that  it  constituted  a  diversion  of  a  large  part  of  the 
funds  and  property  of  the  university,  in  that  it  put  the  medical  de- 
partment under  a  new  and  alien  trusteeship,  which  was  contrary  to 
the  terms  of  other  gifts  to  the  university.  They,  therefore,  declared 
the  action  illegal,  null  and  void,  and  vetoed  it  in  every  part  thereof. 


Decision  of  Supreme  Court. 


317 


members  without  further  formality.  The  court  decreed  that 
Messrs.  Harris,  Godbey,  and  Biggs  were  not  entitled  to  member- 
ship on  the  Board.  It  further  decreed  that  because  of  the  fail- 
ure of  the  General  Conference  to  act  on  the  cases  of  Messrs. 
Waller,  Jackson,  and  Robins  the  said  Waller,  Jackson,  and 
Robins  were  members  of  the  Board  and  would  so  remain  until 
the  General  Conference  took  action.  The  bill  of  the  Church 
was,  therefore,  dismissed  at  its  cost. 

This  astounding  decision  was  received  by  the  Church  with 
becoming  dignity  and  civic  loyalty.  The  sense  of  the  injustice 
which  had  been  inflicted  was  felt  profoundly  throughout  the 
Connection ;  but  the  Church  which  teaches  submission  to  civil 
authority  must  be  obedient  to  constituted  powers,  even  when 
it  feels  that  its  own  rights  have  been  passed  by  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  public  affairs. 

In  order  to  make  the  record  complete,  we  have  thought  it 
necessary  so  far  to  anticipate  in  this  recital  as  to  include  an 
action  taken  by  the  General  Conference  of  1914,  the  session 
following  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  At  that  session 
this  matter  was  committed  for  study  and  report  to  a  committee 
of  fifteen,  as  follows — viz. :  D.  H.  Linebaugh,  Chairman ;  Frank 
M.  Thomas,  Secretary;  J.  R.  Bond,  A.  J.  Lamar,  H.  M.  Du 
Bose,  N.  E.  Harris,  E.  V.  Regester,  R.  A.  Meek,  Plato  Durham, 
T.  S.  Garrison,  H.  N.  Snyder,  J.  W.  Perry,  T.  D.  Samford,  C. 
M.  Hay,  W.  A.  Christian,  and  J.  M.  McCormick.  The  commit- 
tee submitted  a  report,  which  was  adopted  by  the  General  Con- 
ference. The  following  excerpts  from  the  report  refer  to  the 
final  disposition  made  of  the  Vanderbilt  case: 

We  have  read  with  regret  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ten- 
nessee that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  did  not,  through 
the  representatives  of  certain  Annual  Conferences,  found  Vanderbilt 
University  and  that  the  Church  does  not  own  said  university.  As  the 
highest  representative  body  of  our  Church,  we  herewith  place  on  rec- 
ord our  sincere  and  positive  conviction  that  the  opinion  does  not  fully 
determine  the  real  equities  involved.  In  the  expression  of  this  convic- 
tion we  are  not  unmindful  of  the  respect  that  should  be  accorded  to  the 
legally  constituted  civil  authorities;  but  there  are  times  when  it  is  a 
duty  to  enter  a  solemn  protest  against  the  action  of  the  civil  authorities, 
lest  injustice  should  become  common  and  the  courts  be  brought  into 
contempt. 


318 


History  of  Methodism. 


We  believe  that  the  statements  of  the  court  in  reference  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  contumacy  on  the  part  of  the  Church  is  a  needless  and  gra- 
tuitous reflection. 

We  maintain  that  the  charter  of  Vanderbilt  University,  containing, 
among  other  provisions,  what  is  known  as  the  "Memphis  Resolutions," 
secured  to  the  founders — the  patronizing  Conferences  adopting  such 
resolutions — the  ownership  and  control  of  the  university  and,  by  the 
ninth  paragraph  thereof,  secured  unto  the  bishops  of  the  Church  the 
right  to  "act  as  a  Board  of  Supervisors  of  the  university  or  any  of  its 
departments  and,  jointly  with  the  Board  of  Trustees,  to  elect  officers 
and  professors  and  prescribe  the  plan  of  study  and  form  of  govern- 
ment." But  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  the  highest 
judicial  tribunal  in  that  State,  in  an  opinion  rendered  on  the  twenty- 
first  day  of  March,  1914,  with  reference  to  said  ninth  article  of  said 
Memphis  resolutions,  say  in  one  portion  of  said  opinion:  "Whether 
the  seventh  and  ninth  of  these  resolutions  do  not  attempt  an  unwar- 
rantable and  illegal  interference  with  the  normal  and  legitimate  pow- 
ers of  a  Tennessee  corporation  and  its  governing  body  of  directors  or 
trustees,  presents  a  very  serious  question;  but  it  is  not  an  issue  here, 
and  for  that  reason  not  discussed  and  decided."  And  in  another  por- 
tion say:  "Whether  this  resolution  invests  them  with  legal  power  of 
any  kind,  we  very  much  doubt." 

And  the  court  in  this  opinion  further  say:  "We  are  further  of  the 
opinion  that  the  inherent  power  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  fill  vacan- 
cies in  its  own  body  authorizes  it  to  elect  and  install  members  to  fill 
vacancies,  and  that  such  new  members  are  entitled  to  their  seats  on  the 
Board  ad  interim,  until  such  time  as  they  may  be  rejected  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  or  its  Board  of  Education  acting  for  it  and  under  its 
authority.  It  has  the  right  to  keep  its  membership  full  and  cannot 
legally  divest  itself  of  that  power  and  duty  except  conditionally  upon 
the  refusal  of  the  General  Conference  to  confirm  its  appointees." 

And  as  to  the  right  of  confirmation  declared  by  the  court  to  be  in 
the  General  Conference,  the  court  say:  "Of  course  at  any  time,  if  it 
should  voluntarily  surrender  or  renounce  this  relation  or  contuma- 
ciously refuse  to  confirm  members  elected  and  cease  to  cooperate  with 
the  university,  its  rights  to  representation  in  the  Board  of  Trustees 
and  its  management  would  as  a  consequence  cease." 

We  are  of  the  opinion  that  said  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  of  Tennessee,  as  to  the  parties  litigant,  construing  the  stat- 
ute of  said  State,  is  final,  authoritative,  and  determinative  of  the  ques- 
tions of  law  involved,  so  far  as  the  courts  of  Tennessee  are  concerned. 

We  are  also  of  the  opinion  that  under  said  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Tennessee  the  control  of  the  General  Conference  of  Vander- 
bilt University  is  so  small  and  remote  as  to  be  difficult  of  effective  en- 
forcement. 

We  believe  that  the  differences  that  have  arisen  between  the  Van- 
derbilt Board  of  Trustees  and  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 


Committee  of  Fifteen. 


Episcopal  Church,  South,  so  long  as  conditions  remain  as  they  are,  are 
irreconcilable  for  the  following  reasons: 

(a)  In  the  pleadings  in  the  cause  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ten- 
nessee the  Board  of  Trustees  denied  the  ownership  and  control  of  our 
Church  over  the  affairs  of  the  university. 

(&)  The  Board  of  Trustees  accepted  a  gift  of  one  million  dollars  from 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  which  gift  was  tendered  by  the  giver  with  cer- 
tain statements  and  conditions,  the  acceptance  of  which  was  declared 
by  the  College  of  Bishops  in  their  "veto"  and  "statement  to  the 
Church"  to  be  in  breach  of  our  trust  and  dishonoring  to  our  Church. 

(c)  The  Church,  through  its  ministers  and  representative  laymen,  as- 
sembled in  our  Annual  Conferences  throughout  the  Connection,  almost 
unanimously  indorsed  and  approved  the  position  of  the  bishops  and 
their  statement  that  the  acceptance  of  this  gift  would  be  a  breach  of 
our  trust  and  a  dishonor  to  our  Church. 

(d)  The  Board  of  Trustees,  in  our  opinion,  have  failed  to  execute  their 
trust  in  such  manner  as  to  conserve  the  interest  either  of  the  origi- 
nal patronizing  Conferences  or  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South. 

In  the  light  of  the  considerations  above,  we  express  the  belief  that 
the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to 
prevent  injury  to  itself  or  to  the  university  and  to  subserve  the  high 
interest  of  all  parties  concerned,  should  return  to  the  patronizing  Con- 
ferences the  rights  received  from  them  in  and  to  Vanderbilt  University. 
Therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  1.  That  a  commission  be,  and  is  hereby,  created,  to  be 
appointed  by  the  College  of  Bishops  of  our  Church,  to  be  composed  of 
sixteen  members,  four  of  whom  shall  be  bishops,  four  ministers  other 
than  bishops,  and  eight  laymen,  to  be  known  as  the  Educational  Com- 
mission of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

2.  That  said  commission,  when  appointed,  be,  and  they  are  hereby, 
given  full  power  and  authority  and  directed  to  transfer  and  reconvey 
unto  the  patronizing  Annual  Conferences  of  said  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity— to  wit,  the  Tennessee,  Memphis,  North  Mississippi,  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas,  White  River,  North  Alabama,  and  Louisville  Annual  Con- 
ferences— all  right,  title,  and  interest,  authority  over  and  control  in, 
said  university  that  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South,  as  such,  has  or  may  have,  by  virtue  of  the  resolu- 
tions of  conveyance  to  it  adopted  by  the  Annual  Conferences  in  and  to 
the  property,  right  of  supervision  and  control,  or  confirmation  of  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Vanderbilt  University. 

3.  We  recommend  to  said  patronizing  Conferences  that  they  assert, 
by  proper  legal  proceedings,  their  right  to  the  ownership  and  control 
of  said  university,  guaranteed  to  them  by  the  charter  of  said  univer- 
sity, and  as  establishers  and  founders  of  Vanderbilt  University,  a 
charitable  trust.  Should  said  recommendation  be  favorably  acted  upon 
by  said  patronizing  Conferences,  the  expenses  of  such  litigation  shall 


820 


History  of  Method/ism. 


be  paid  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  under  the  direction  and  supervision 
of  the  commission  hereinbefore  provided  for. 

4.  That  the  patronizing  Conferences  of  Vanderbilt  University  are 
requested  to  elect  one  commissioner  each  to  work  in  cooperation  with 
the  Educational  Commission  authorized  and  created  hereunder,  in  the 
accomplishment  of  the  transfer  of  the  rights  to  the  said  aforementioned 
patronizing  Conferences  and  the  legal  procedure  necessary  to  enforce 
the  same  and  to  act  for  and  on  behalf  of  the  patronizing  Conferences 
in  the  assertion  of  the  rights  to  Vanderbilt  University. 

5.  That  the  General  Conference  hereby  commits  to  the  General 
Board  of  Education,  until  such  time  as  the  transfer  to  the  patronizing 
Conferences  is  complete,  the  responsible  work  of  the  confirmation  of 
the  trustees  of  Vanderbilt  University.  This  right  of  confirmation,  we 
believe,  implies  of  necessity  the  right  to  reject  any  person  selected  by 
the  Board  of  Trustees  who,  in  the  judgment  of  the  General  Conference 
or  of  its  agents,  the  Board  of  Education,  will  net  properly  discharge 
the  duties  pertaining  to  the  office;  that  the  Board  of  Education  is  here- 
by instructed  that  in  the  performance  of  this  duty  it  shall  confirm 
no  person  as  a  trustee  of  Vanderbilt  University  unless  satisfied  that 
such  person  will  in  the  performance  of  his  duty  as  trustee  fairly  rep- 
resent the  interests  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  said 
university. 

6.  The  General  Conference  instructs  the  aforesaid  Board  to  safe- 
guard to  the  utmost  the  interests  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  in  Vanderbilt  University  by  confirming  as  trustees  those  per- 
sons only  who  will  endeavor  to  carry  out  most  heartily  the  aims  and 
purposes  of  those  who  founded  and  who  labored  to  develop  the  great 
university  for  the  training  of  our  ministers  and  in  every  other  depart- 
ment in  the  training  of  our  young  men;  and  who  will  magnify  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  honor  his  Church,  and  emphasize  by  life 
and  teaching  his  preeminence  and  leadership  in  all  the  works  of  life. 

7.  In  case  it  be  found  impossible  to  effect  this  transfer,  we  hereby 
authorize  and  instruct  the  commission  herein  named  to  take  such  steps 
as  in  their  opinion  may  be  necessary  to  preserve  and  defend  the  inter- 
est and  honor  of  the  Church. 

8.  That  the  commission  herein  provided  for  shall  have  all  the  power 
and  authority  of  this  General  Conference  to  complete  and  make  ef- 
fectual the  formal  surrender  and  transfer  of  the  powers,  relations,  and 
rights  of  the  General  Conference  over  said  university  to  the  said  pat- 
ronizing Conferences,  and  to  take  all  steps  necessary  to  carry  out  the 
said  transfer  so  as  to  make  the  same  effective  and  complete. 

Tt  is  sufficient  here  to  add  that  none  of  the  patronizing  Con- 
ferences desired  to  take  up  the  matter  of  further  contending  in 
this  case  before  the  courts.    The  commission,  which  had  heen 


A  Closed  Case. 


321 


given  plenary  power,  therefore  formally  and  officially  closed 
the  whole  matter  by  deciding  that  the  contest  was  at  an 
end.  The  Church  felt  that  it  could  well  afford  to  leave  to 
Caesar  and  the  disloyal  trustees  the  whole  case  as  it  had  been 
by  them  concluded.  To  another  chapter  belongs  the  task  of 
showing  how  the  Church  turned  with  hope  and  enthusiasm  to 
laying  other  and  broader  foundations  for  its  higher  educa- 
tional work  in  lieu  of  that  which  it  had  lost  through  the  ver- 
dict of  the  courts. 

Note. — The  material  used  in  making  up  the  preceding  chapter  was 
gathered  largely  from  the  briefs  of  the  Church's  attorneys  in  the  Van- 
derbilt  case,  from  other  court  records,  and  from  the  journals  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference.  The  author,  however,  claims  a  personal  knowledge  of 
the  material  details  of  this  case  from  its  inception  to  its  close. 
21 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


"Comity  and  Federation" — Two  Soldiers — Historians — Other  Notables — 
World  Missionary  Conference — Canadian  General  Conference  of  1910 
— General  Superintendents — Acts  of  Conference — Elections — Cente- 
nary of  the  Constitution — General  Conference,  North — Deaths  of  Bish- 
ops— Acts  of  the  Conference — Negro  Bishops — Age  Limit — New  Bish- 
ops— Other  Elections — Wesleyan  Conference  Sittings — King's  Oath — 
Membership  Discussion — Obituaries — Incidents  of  the  Sessions — Aus- 
tralasian Methodism — Fourth  Ecumenical  Conference — World  Ad- 
dress—1910-1913  (Concluded). 

r  I  ^HE  very  earliest  definite  movement  toward  "comity  and 


I  federation"  in  American  Methodism  was  embodied  in  a 
paper  submitted  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  its  session  in  Richmond,  Va.,  in 
1886.  This  paper  was  signed  by  M.  B.  Chapman,  W.  G.  Miller, 
A.  S.  Andrews,  A.  H.  Mitchell,  and  D.  C.  Kelley.  Dr.  Chapman 
was  its  author.  It  recited  the  agreements  contained  in  the 
Cape  May  Commission  as  a  basis  of  fraternal  action  between 
the  two  Methodist  Churches.  It  then  asked  that  a  commission 
consisting  of  four  ministers  and  three  laymen  be  appointed  to 
meet  a  similar  commission  which  the  General  Conference  in  the 
North  was  asked  to  appoint;  and  that  this  Joint  Commission 
should  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  devising  a  plan  of  Method- 
ist comity  and  federation,  whereby  might  be  avoided,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  sin  and  folly  of  the  two  Churches  occupying  the 
same  territory  either  at  home  or  in  the  foreign  field.  This  is 
believed  to  have  been  the  real  beginning  of  the  long  and  happy 
negotiations  which  have  brought  the  two  Churches  to  their 
present  improved  relations  of  fraternity  and  administrative 
understanding. 

On  July  2,  1910,  the  originator  of  this  early  scheme  of 
Methodist  rapprochement,  Dr.  Marcus  Boatner  Chapman,  was 
gathered  to  his  fathers.  He  was  born  in  Clinton,  La.,  Oc- 
tober 22,  1846.  Converted  in  early  childhood,  he  received  either 
a  local  preacher's  license  or  an  exhorter's  certificate  at  the 
remarkably  early  age  of  fourteen.  Not  unnaturally  he  was 
styled  the  "boy  preacher."    His  first  work  was  to  the  slaves, 


(322) 


Two  Soldiers. 


but  the  planter  and  his  neighbors  soon  became  so  much  inter- 
ested in  the  youthful  missionary  that  they  constantly  attended 
his  meetings  and  were  amongst  his  most  interested  and  de 
lighted  auditors.  Near  the  middle  period  of  the  War  between 
the  States  he  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army  as  a  chaplain 
and  was  soon  after  transferred  to  the  army  of  General  Lee  in 
Virginia,  being  then  only  sixteen  years  of  age.  There  he  became 
junior  chaplain  under  Dr.  John  C.  Granbery  (later  made  a 
bishop).  After  the  close  of  the  war,  young  Chapman  entered 
Southern  University,  at  Greensboro,  Ala.,  from  which  institu- 
tion he  graduated.  His  subsequent  career  was  filled  with  suc- 
cess and  was  crowned  with  the  approbation  of  his  Church.  He 
filled  many  of  the  most  prominent  stations  in  the  Connection, 
from  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  to  Baltimore,  Md.  For  four  years  he  was 
editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  and  proved  himself 
a  brilliant  and  effective  journalistic  writer.  In  1886  he  began 
and  completed  a  tour  of  the  world.  The  results  of  his  studies 
and  observations  during  this  journey  were  embodied  in  two 
books  which  enjoyed  much  popularity — namely,  "The  Lands  of 
the  Orient"  and  "Mounds,  Monuments,  and  Inscriptions."  Of 
the  former,  Bishop  Galloway  said  that  it  was  the  very  best 
book  of  travel  he  had  ever  read.  His  friends  and  familiars  loved 
to  refer  to  him  as  "soldier,  author,  and  preacher."  A  soldier 
of  Christ  he  was,  and  a  preacher  of  righteousness. 

The  title  of  "soldier"  calls  to  memory  the  name  of  another 
leader  in  Methodism,  one  associated  with  Dr.  Chapman  in  sign- 
ing the  document  on  "Comity  and  Federation,"  and  who  pre- 
ceded his  brother  itinerant  by  some  months  into  the  kingdom 
on  high.  David  Campbell  Kelley  is  a  name  which  has  already 
frequently  appeared  in  this  narrative.  With  most  of  the  affairs 
of  Methodism  he  was  connected  in  one  way  or  another  for  more 
than  fifty  years.  Becoming  a  Methodist  preacher  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  in  1852,  the  War  between  the  States  found  him  a  man 
still  under  thirty  years  of  age.  Although  by  conviction  an 
abolitionist,  he  gave  his  allegiance  to  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
raised  a  company  of  cavalry,  and  became  its  first  captain.  In 
the  command  of  General  Bedford  Forrest,  the  great  military 
strategist,  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  colonel  and  was  often  the  rank- 


History  of  Methodism. 


ing  officer  during  important  engagements,  only  one  of  which  he 
is  reported  to  have  lost.  General  Lord  Wolseley  described  him 
as  being  "as  brave  a  man  as  ever  smelled  gunpowder."  He  had 
been  the  Church's  missionary  in  China  from  1852  to  1855. 
After  the  war  he  began  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  public 
affairs  of  the  Connection.  While  serving  as  pastor,  presiding 
elder,  Missionary  Treasurer,  Secretary  of  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity, and  trustee  of  many  other  interests,  he  was  prominent  in 
Annual  and  General  Conference  affairs,  and  thus  impressed 
himself  in  an  unusual  way  upon  the  Connection.  In  1890  he 
became  a  candidate  for  Governor  of  Tennessee  on  the  Prohibi- 
tion ticket,  receiving  the  largest  vote  ever  jjolled  by  that  party 
in  the  State.  Reference  has  been  made  elsewhere  to  the  techni- 
cal charge  against  him  which  grew  out  of  this  candidacy  as  it 
related  to  his  pastoral  standing.  His  advocacy  of  prohibition 
during  this  campaign  is,  however,  believed  to  have  greatly  en- 
hanced the  cause  in  Tennessee  and  the  South.  Becoming  a  su- 
perannuate, he  still  longed  to  serve,  and  died  while  filling  as  a 
supply  a  charge  in  the  mining  district  of  McMinn  County,  Tenn. 
About  his  head  many  storms,  other  than  those  of  actual  war, 
had  raged  and  broken.  Often  he  was  at  variance  with  familiars 
and  former  comrades,  but  throughout  he  was  accorded  the  meed 
of  honest  purpose  and  loyal  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 
He  lived  to  hear  the  last  storm  die  out  and  himself  passed  away 
amid  perfect  peace  and  calm.  The  concluding  sentence  of  Bish- 
op Hoss's  eulogy  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  his  funeral  was 
expressive  of  a  sentiment  characteristic  of  both  the  subject  and 
the  eulogist :  "Good  soldier  of  the  Confederacy,  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ,  farewell !" 

In  the  accessions  to  the  Church  in  the  South,  which  came 
in  the  early  post-war  period  from  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  there  were  not  a  few  men  of  great  gifts  and  demon- 
strated leadership.  Of  these,  Samuel  Keener  Cox,  who  became 
a  member  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  and  who  died  Novem- 
ber 27,  1909,  was  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  in  character 
and  the  most  effective  in  service.  His  father,  Rev.  Luther  J. 
Cox,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church.   His  wife,  the  mother  of  Samuel  Keener  Cox,  was  an 


8.  K.  Cox— 0.  0.  N.  MacDoncll. 


325 


aunt  of  Bishop  Keener,  so  that  the  son  and  nephew  were  cous- 
ins-german.  The  son  was  well  educated  and  happily  started 
upon  his  career.  Entering  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  his 
parents,  he  served  during  a  number  of  years  pastorates  in 
Washington,  D.  C. ;  Wilmington,  Del.;  Charleston,  S.  C. ;  and 
Georgetown,  D.  C.  In  1853  he  was  called  to  do  educational 
work  in  Pennsylvania,  but,  for  reasons  of  sentiment,  soon  re- 
moved to  the  far  South,  where  he  continued  in  school  and  pas- 
toral work  until  1806,  when,  as  did  many  of  his  fellow  Church- 
men, he  entered  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  As  a  member  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference, his  w^ork  and  ministry  became  a  part  of  the  history  of 
that  body  for  nearly  forty  years.  As  pastor  and  as  editor  of 
the  Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist  and,  later,  of  the  Baltimore 
Christian  Advocate,  he  served  his  Church  and  generation  in  a 
way  that  made  his  memory  to  be  as  ointment  poured  forth. 

Savannah,  the  remotest  historic  outpost  of  American  Meth- 
odism, has,  despite  a  somewhat  sinister  civic  record  in  modern 
times,  remained  a  strong  and  testifying  center  of  Methodist 
life  and  has  given  to  the  Church  a  number  of  faithful  leaders 
and  preachers.  The  Kev.  George  G.  N.  MacDonell,  who  was 
born  in  that  city  September  4,  1831,  and  died  there  May  19, 
1910,  was  a  type  of  the  sturdy,  faithful,  and  effective  evangelists 
who,  for  the  most  part,  have  made  up  the  ranks  of  Methodist 
preacherhood.  Not  a  scholar  in  any  technical  sense,  not  a  great 
preacher  according*  to  the  standards  of  men,  but  apostolic,  self- 
devoted,  and  intrepid,  he  came  to  be  intrusted  by  his  brethren 
with  the  highest  responsibilities  of  their  councils  and  adminis- 
trations. In  the  Annual  Conference  and  in  the  General  Con- 
ference he  was  made  their  spokesman  and  leader,  and  never 
once  was  the  confidence  thus  expressed  betrayed  or  ill  served. 
One  of  the  earliest  commissioners  on  federation,  he  showed 
the  spirit  of  true  fraternity  and  helped  to  bring  on  the  rare 
good  feeling  of  an  after  time.  Dr.  MacDonell  began  his  minis- 
try in  Savannah  amid  the  scenes  of  the  terrible  yellow  fever 
epidemic  of  1854,  being  the  Father  Damien  of  the  period  of  that 
awful  scourge.  At  that  time  he  organized  the  Young  Men's 
Benevolent  Association,  a  society  which  exists  to-day.  In  No- 
vember, 1854,  he  joined  the  Georgia  Conference,  having  for  fel- 


326 


History  of  Methodism. 


low  members  in  his  class  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  afterwards  bishop ; 
John  W.  Burk,  distinguished  as  a  publisher  of  the  Church;  J. 
O.  A.  Clark,  scholar  and  author;  and  T.  T.  Christian,  a  veteran 
pastor  and  presiding  elder.  Rev.  Robert  W.  MacDonell,  a  son 
of  Dr.  MacDonell,  who  became  a  medical  missionary  to  Mexico, 
died  of  yellow  fever  at  his  post  in  that  laud,  a  reminder  to  the 
Church  of  the  early  loyalty  and  intrepidity  of  the  father. 

In  a  former  connection  appraisement  was  made  of  the  life  and 
work  of  several  ministers  who  had  separately  earned  the  title 
of  "Church  historian."  During  the  period  now  under  review 
the  names  of  two  others  worthy  to  be  put  in  that  list  were  no 
more  called  at  the  yearly  gathering  of  their  brethren.  George 
Gillman  Smith,  born  December  24,  1836,  started  in  life  with 
good  educational  equipment,  a  sound  religious  experience,  and 
a  most  definite  purpose  of  self-devotion  to  his  chosen  work. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  was  licensed  to  preach.  In  1861  he 
went  out  as  a  chaplain  in  the  Confederate  army.  About  a  year 
thereafter  he  received  a  nearly  fatal  wound,  from  the  effects  of 
which  he  never  wholly  recovered,  suffering  from  it,  oftentimes 
acutely,  through  all  his  after  years.  As  a  pastor  or  as  a  sec- 
retary of  Church  interests,  he  served  in  the  Baltimore  and  the 
North  Georgia  Conferences  until  1888,  when  the  superannuate 
relation  was  given  him.  In  retirement  he  devoted  himself  to 
authorship  and  produced  a  number  of  useful  and  enduring 
volumes.  Amongst  these  are:  "The  Life  of  Bishop  Francis 
Asbury,"  "The  Life  of  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew,"  "The  Life  of 
Bishop  George  F.  Pierce,"  "The  History  of  Methodism  in 
Georgia  and  Florida,"  and  "The  Story  of  Georgia  and  the 
Georgia  People." 

Thomas  Hart  Benton  Anderson,  D.D.,  was  born  in  Missouri, 
but  early  removed  with  his  parents  to  California,  where,  at  the 
age  of  twenty  years,  he  was  licensed  to  preach  and  entered  the 
itinerancy  in  the  Pacific  Conference.  His  gifts  were  unusual, 
and  he  used  his  limited  advantages  with  faithful  industry,  and 
thus  rose  rapidly  to  distinction.  Few  men  in  his  time  in  the 
West  were  more  widely  or  favorably  known,  ne  was  influent  ial 
in  connectional  matters.  For  a  time  he  served  in  the  Missouri 
Conference,  but  later  returned  as  a  superannuate  to  the  Pacific 
Conference,  where  he  engaged  in  the  work  of  writing  a  history 


The  Andersons — Walker — Edwards — Mason — Moore.  327 


of  the  planting  of  Methodism  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  His  style 
as  a  writer  was  vigorous  and  fascinating.  As  a  preacher  he 
was  strong  and  convincing. 

A  near-nonogenarian  was  Josephus  Anderson,  D.D.,  of  the 
Florida  Conference,  whose  death  occurred  August  11,  1913. 
For  nearly  sixty-five  years  he  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  deeply 
spiritual,  faithful,  eloquent,  tireless.  First  in  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference, then  in  the  White  River  and  Florida  Conferences,  he 
gave  his  time  and  strength  to  the  gospel.  For  fourteen  years 
he  was  editor  of  the  Florida  Christian  Advocate.  Methodists 
of  the  ante-bellum  generation  remember  him  as  one  of  the  gal- 
axy of  preachers  whose  sermons  made  up  that  classic  and  pop- 
ular volume  known  as  "The  Methodist  Pulpit,  South." 

In  connection  with  the  efforts  of  the  Church  to  educate  a 
ministry  for  the  Colored  Church,  and  particularly  in  connec- 
tion with  the  story  of  the  founding  of  Paine  College,  a  eulogy 
was  passed  upon  the  self-sacrificing  labors  of  Dr.  Morgan  Calla- 
way, the  first  President  of  that  institution.  His  immediate 
successor,  the  Rev.  George  Williams  Walker,  is  entitled  to  a 
no  less  grateful  and  hearty  remembrance.  He  was  the  son  of 
Dr.  H.  A.  C.  Walker,  great  and  honored  as  a  Methodist  preach- 
er. While  at  the  meridian  of  a  strong  and  hopeful  manhood, 
he  gave  himself  to  what  was  then  a  most  trying  task — one 
which  meant  all  but  social  immolation.  With  heroic  devotion 
he  spent  his  full  physical  and  intellectual  force  in  lifting  up  a 
helpless  race  and  in  giving  them  teachers  and  leaders.  His 
brethren  hailed  him  as  "Christian  gentleman  and  true  mission- 
ary."  In  him  these  titles  blended  well. 

To  be  added  to  the  list  of  those  who  departed  from  labors 
during  this  period  are  several  names  of  ministers  who,  by  rea- 
son of  their  exercise  of  peculiar  gifts,  became  more  or  less  well 
known  throughout  the  Connection.  Rev.  F.  M.  Edwards,  D.D., 
of  the  Virginia  Conference,  who  died  November  30,  1910,  was 
a  man  of  strong  personality,  a  successful  preacher  and  pastor, 
and  an  author  of  considerable  local  note.  Rev.  James  M.  Ma- 
son, of  the  Alabama  Conference,  whose  death  occurred  Febru- 
ary 3,  1909,  and  Rev.  Warner  Moore,  of  the  Memphis  Confer- 
ence, whose  death  occurred  March  3,  1909,  were  leaders  in  the 
respective  bodies  to  which  they  belonged  and  were  highly  es- 


328 


History  of  Methodism 


teemed  and  trusted  by  their  brethren.  The  North  Carolina 
Con  Terence  was  greatly  bereaved  in  the  death,  on  May  4,  1909, 
of  Rev.  Edwin  A.  Yates,  D.D.,  long  a  stalwart  representative 
of  the  ranks  and  a  faithful  preacher  of  Christ.  Rev.  R.  G. 
Porter,  of  the  North  Mississippi  Conference,  who  died  October 
0,  1908,  was  one  of  the  best-known  Advocate  correspondents  of 
the  Connection.  His  books  and  stories  were  much  read,  espe- 
cially by  the  young.  Rev.  P.  L.  Stanton  was  styled  "a  citizen 
of  Jerusalem,"  because,  after  an  extended  itinerant  career,  he 
made  his  home  in  the  Holy  City  and  from  that  vantage  ex- 
plored the  Holy  Land  and  wrote  many  sketches  of  its  scenery 
and  people.  He  died  May  28,  1911.  Rev.  Frank  Richardson, 
D.D.,  was  an  honored  leader  of  Holston  Methodism  and  at  one 
time  was  editor  of  the  Conference  organ.  Frequently,  in  the 
delegations  to  the  General  Conference,  he  fully  justified  the 
confidence  of  his  brethren  and  supported  their  interests.  In 
the  pulpit  he  was  cyclonic  and  in  debate  irresistible.  His 
death  occurred  April  4,  1912. 

Yet  others  who  passed  away  during  or  just  previous  to  this 
period  were:  Revs.  W.  H.  Browning,  Little  Rock  Conference; 
Rev.  P.  L.  Groome,  Western  North  Carolina  Conference;  Well- 
born Mooney,  Memphis  Conference;  Samuel  H.  Zimmerman, 
South  Carolina  Conference;  E.  A.  Bailey,  Northwest  Texas 
Conference;  E.  B.  Prettyman,  Baltimore  Conference;  C.  I. 
Vandeventer,  Missouri  Conference;  John  W.  Heidt,  North 
Georgia  Conference;  W.  L.  C.  Hunnicutt,  Mississippi  Confer- 
ence; W.  A.  Parkes,  North  Georgia  Conference;  W.  B.  Lewis, 
Mississippi  Conference;  John  S.  Hutchinson,  Baltimore  Con- 
ference; T.  S.  Wade,  Western  Virginia  Conference;  W.  L. 
Grissom,  Western  North  Carolina  Conference;  G.  H.  Hayes. 
Louisville  Conference;  S.  S.  Keener,  Louisiana  Conference:  J. 
A.  Orman,  Tennessee  Conference;  Walker  Lewis,  North  Georgia 
Conference;  M.  H.  Neely,  North  Texas  Conference;  John  H. 
Riggin,  Little  Rock  Conference;  and  J.  B.  Robins,  North 
Georgia  Conference.  These  all  obtained  a  good  report  and  have 
entered  into  the  heritage  which  is  deathless. 

In  1910  another  of  those  great  world  missionary  Conferences, 
such  as  had  been  held  in  London,  was  gathered  in  Edinburgh. 
Very  many  American  and  European  Methodists  participated 


World  Missionary  Conference — Canada. 


329 


in  its  proceedings.  The  late  Dr.  H.  M.  Hamill,  one  of  the 
world's  great  Sunday  school  leaders  and  a  minister  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  summarized  the  actions  of  this 
notable  Conference  as  follows : 

1.  The  appointment  of  a  Continuation  Committee  to  carry  out  the 
findings  of  the  Conference,  to  complete  its  work,  and  to  prepare  for 
another  Conference  in  1920  or  earlier,  probably  in  Canada. 

2.  To  effect  all  possible  unity  and  cooperation  of  plan  and  money  and 
agencies  on  the  mission  fields,  in  order  to  economize  good  Christian 
money  given  to  missions. 

3.  To  encourage  and  aid  in  the  organization  of  native,  independent, 
self-acting,  and  self-centered  Churches  as  soon  as  the  natives  are  ready 
for  it,  giving  them  all  authority,  yet  continuing  to  help  as  needed  and 
desired. 

4.  To  emphasize  the  great  educational  work  of  schools  and  colleges 
in  mission  fields  and  make  them  trainers  of  native  leaders  and  teach- 
ers to  the  utmost. 

5.  To  insist  upon  a  more  careful  selection  of  missionaries  by  home 
Boards  and  a  much  higher  and  fuller  preparation  for  their  missionary 
ministry. 

6.  To  seek  the  best  things  in  Old  World  pagan  religions  as  a  ground- 
work on  which  to  build  the  Christian  religion  and  always  to  foster  and 
honor  native  patriotism  and  loyalty  to  worthy  traditions  and  customs. 

7.  To  magnify  only  the  vital  and  essential  things  in  the  Christian 
faith  and  to  preach  and  teach  and  live  a  simple  Christ  life  and  doctrine 
without  doubt  or  pessimism,  and  with  larger  sympathy  and  love  for  the 
heathen  himself  and  less  of  the  professionalism  of  the  official  mission- 
ary preacher  and  teacher. 

The  westering  spirit  possessed  the  Methodist  Church  of  Can- 
ada during  the  latter  years  of  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth 
century,  and  on  August  15,  1910,  its  General  Conference  was 
assembled  in  the  city  of  Victoria,  on  the  island  of  Vancouver, 
at  the  extreme  western  limit  of  the  Dominion.  Victoria  is  a 
beautiful  residential  city  of  about  fifty  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  its  spirit  and  hospitality  answered  well  to  the  ideals  of  the 
vigorous  young  Church,  whose  legislative  assembly  it  received 
as  guest. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Carman,  D.D.,  who  had  been  the  General 
Superintendent  of  the  United  Church  from  its  beginning,  pre- 
sided and  was,  as  always  before,  its  chief  parliamentary  factor. 
In  this  respect  he  has  been  a  most  remarkable  man,  smother- 
ing in  his  skillful  fist  the  lightnings  of  many  an  incipient  par- 


330 


History  of  Methodism. 


liamentary  storm  and  always  guiding  the  assembly  to  a  quiet 
haven.  The  Conference  was  composed  of  three  hundred  and 
twenty  delegates,  one-half  of  whom  were  laymen,  and  all  were 
elected  at  the  preceding  sessions  of  the  Annual  Conferences. 
One  of  the  movements  of  interest  was  the  agitation  in  favor  of 
making  General  Conference  officers  ex  officio  members  of  the 
General  Conference,  a  question  which  has  been  mooted  in  other 
Methodist  general  bodies.  Only  the  General  Superintendents 
are,  under  the  constitution,  ex  officio  members  of  the  lawmak- 
ing body.  This  is  in  pursuance  of  the  early  Methodist  idea  that 
the  bishops  should  take  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Gener- 
al Conference,  a  privilege  which,  in  the  American  Church,  disap- 
peared with  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  in  1S0S,  although 
since  that  date  bishops  have  sometimes  been  heard  upon  the 
floor  or  platform  of  the  different  bodies. 

The  work  of  the  General  Superintendent  in  the  Canadian 
Church  differs  from  that  of  a  bishop  in  very  many  respects. 
The  largest  part  of  his  labors  comes  during  the  session  of  the 
General  Conference;  but  he  is  also  the  chairman  of  the  General 
Conference  committees  and  has  much  labor  in  connection  with 
the  Annual  Conferences,  although  to  him  does  not  fall  the  duty 
of  appointing  the  pastors,  as  is  the  case  with  the  General  Su- 
perintendents in  the  Episcopal  Methodist  bodies.  At  this  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Conference  the  question  of  strengthening 
the  superintendency  was  a  live  one  and  resulted  in  the  election 
of  Rev.  S.  D.  Chown,  D.D.,  as  Associate  Superintendent,  his 
term  being  designated  as  four  years  against  that  of  eight  years 
for  his  senior.  Dr.  Chown  is  a  man  of  exceptional  ability  and 
has  a  masterly  grasp  of  Church  affairs. 

The  somewhat  momentous  time-limit  question  was  settled 
during  the  sittings  of  the  first  week,  and  settled  by  leaving  the 
rule  unchanged,  which  is  a  tenure  of  four  years.  The  debate 
was  spirited.  A  majority  favored  the  status  quo,  a  result  which 
seemed  "a  little  surprising  in  view  of  the  strong  sentiment  in 
favor  of  Canadian  Church  union,  which  must  go  far  toward 
bringing  a  settled  pastorate.  By  a  tremendous  majority  the 
Conference  voted  to  cordially  receive  the  basis  of  union  pro- 
posed by  the  commission  to  the  work  of  which  reference  has 
already  been  made.    It  is  doubted  if  the  English  Parliament 


Canadian  General  Conference. 


333 


or  the  American  Congress  ever  showed  finer  or  more  resilient 
edges  than  some  of  those  which  flashed  out  during  the  discus 
sion  of  the  report  of  this  commission  and  other  matters.  The 
President  announced  the  particular  issue  as  a  momentous  one, 
the  most  important  which  ever  had  or  ever  could  come  before 
Canadian  Methodism,  and  the  debaters  seemed  to  accept  the 
question  in  this  light. 

A  decidedly  critical  matter  coming  before  the  General  Con- 
ference was  that  relating  to  theological  professors  in  the  edu- 
cational institutions  of  the  Church  and  their  responsibility  in 
regard  to  doctrinal  teaching.  This  issue  had  been  made  acute 
through  the  action  of  Dr.  George  Jackson,  a  professor  in  Vic- 
toria College,  the  leading  educational  institution  of  the  Church. 
Professor  Jackson  was  at  that  time  a  member  of  the  British 
Conference  and  yet  was  employed  in  a  Canadian  Methodist 
college.  He  had  recently  put  out  a  book,  dealing  with  Old 
Testament  problems,  which  many  thought  to  be  unsound.  His 
peculiar  relationship  to  the  Church  made  the  case  a  difficult 
one  to  deal  with,  but  it  was  thought  to  have  been  settled  in  a 
happy  way.  A  Committee  of  Examination  was  constituted,  to 
which  complaint  might  be  made  concerning  any  theological  pro- 
fessor thought  to  be  teaching  contrary  to  the  standards  and 
spirit  of  the  Church,  trial  to  follow  in  case  charges  were  con- 
sidered to  be  serious.  A  resolution  was  also  passed  declaring 
the  Church's  faith  in  the  great  fundamentals,  calling  for  a  full 
degree  of  liberty  of  thought  and  teaching,  and  giving  a  reassur- 
ing message  to  the  Church  at  large. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  Conference  was  the  absence  of 
competition  for  connectional  offices.  In  no  case  was  more  than 
one  ballot  required  to  secure  an  election,  and  in  most  cases  the 
vote  was  practically  unanimous.  Dr.  Briggs  was  reelected 
Book  Steward ;  the  Kev.  W.  B.  Creighton  was  reelected  Editor 
of  the  Christian  Guardian;  the  Rev.  T.  E.  E.  Shore  was  made 
Secretary  of  Foreign  Missions;  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Graham,  D.D., 
was  named  as  Secretary  of  Education.  The  Conference 
mourned  the  passing  away  during  the  quadrennium  of  three  of 
its  strongest  men,  and  all  of  them  occupants  of  connectional 
posts.  These  were:  Rev.  John  Potts,  D.D.,  Secretary  of  Edu- 
cation; Rev.  W.  H.  Withrow,  D.D.,  Editor  of  Sunday  School 


332 


History  of  Methodism. 


Publications;  and  Dr.  Alexander  Sutherland,  Secretary  of  For- 
eign Missions. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  represented  by 
H.  M.  Du  Bose,  D.D.,  the  then  retiring  Secretary  of  the  Ep- 
worth  League,  as  fraternal  messenger.  The  Wesleyan  Connec- 
tion was  represented  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Haigh,  and  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  F.  D.  Bovard. 

At  this  time  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  reported  a 
membership  of  three  hundred  and  forty  thousand,  an  increase 
of  twenty-two  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-four  for  the 
quadrennium.  The  reports  of  the  Missionary  Society  showed 
about  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  year  1900-10.  The 
spirit  of  hope  in  the  Church  was  running  high. 

The  first  delegated  General  Conference  of  the  undivided 
American  Methodist  Church  met  in  New  York  City,  and  prob- 
ably in  John  Street  Church,  May  1,  1812.  That  was  the  prac- 
tical beginning  of  the  era  of  the  constitution.  In  that  first 
delegated  session  were  present  ninety  members,  all  preachers. 
The  first  formal  episcopal  address  ever  read  to  a  General  Con- 
ference was  presented  by  Bishop  McKendree.  This  communica- 
tion was  supplemented  with  an  informal  statement  by  Bishop 
Asbury.  Both  bishops  were  concerned  to  present  the  condi- 
tions and  the  legislative  needs  of  the  Connection,  the  member- 
ship of  which  at  that  time  was  one  hundred  and  ninety  thou- 
sand, with  seven  hundred  itinerants  and  two  thousand  local 
preachers.  This  was  twenty-eight  years  after  the  Christmas 
Conference.  At  the  end  of  the  next  one  hundred  years  the  num- 
ber of  American  Methodists  exceeded  seven  millions,  with  more 
than  ninety  thousand  ministers,  local  and  itinerant,  having 
the  world  for  their  field. 

The  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  meeting  of  the  first 
delegated  General  Conference  was  marked  by  the  assembling 
of  the  twenty-sixth  delegated  session  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  (being  the  thirty- 
fifth  since  1784),  in  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  May  1,  1012.  This  fact 
was  appropriately  adverted  to  by  the  bishops  in  their  address, 
a  document  of  impressive  length  and  filled  with  studious  re- 
lictions upon  the  progress  and  needs  of  the  Church.    At  the 


Northern  General  Conference  of  1912.  833 


call  of  the  names  of  the  bishops  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Con- 
ference, it  was  officially  announced  that  four  members  of  the 
college  had  died  during  the  quadrennium — namely :  Cyrus  D. 
Foss,  Willard  F.  Mallalieu,  Daniel  A.  Goodsell,  and  Henry 
Spellmeyer. 

Bishop  Goodsell  died  December  5,  1909.  He  was  a  man  of 
noble  presence,  winsome  in  manners  and  conversation,  deeply 
spiritual,  and  devoted  to  his  great  mission.  In  utterance  he 
was  chaste,  scholarly,  and  eloquent.  His  style  as  a  writer  was 
luminous  and  engaging.  His  biographer  describes  him  as  "a 
bishop  for  his  epoch,  an  honor  to  the  Church  that  honored  him." 
Bishop  Foss  died  in  Philadelphia  January  29,  1910.  With  a 
Christian  experience  ever  fresh  and  exalted,  always  dignified, 
serious,  and  thorough  in  his  administration,  he  was  earnestly 
loved  and  profoundly  honored.  His  messages  and  arguments 
were  "like  wedges  and  were  driven  home  by  forceful  utterance." 
As  an  archon  of  Methodism  his  name  will  abide.  Suddenly, 
alone,  and  at  night,  in  his  hotel  at  Atlantic  City  during  the 
session  of  the  New  Jersey  Conference,  died  Bishop  Spellmeyer 
on  March  10,  1910.  He  was  modest,  but  strong  in  character 
and  lucid  and  forceful  in  speech.  He  was  a  representative 
in  the  episcopacy  of  the  ranks  of  the  pastorate.  Bishop  Mal- 
lalieu died  August  1,  1911.  Of  him  his  colleagues  said:  "He 
never  dodged  an  issue,  never  furled  his  flag,  never  shirked  a 
battle." 

At  the  opening  of  this  General  Conference  a  resolution  was 
brought  in  asking  that  the  Committee  on  Episcopacy  make  an 
early  report  on  the  number  of  bishops  to  be  elected.  The  Con- 
ference by  a  large  majority  expressed  the  judgment  that  all 
bishops  should  be  relieved  of  official  responsibility  after  reach- 
ing the  age  of  seventy  years.  This  rule  put  upon  the  retired 
list  Bishops  Warren,  Cranston,  Moore,  and  Neely. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  North  has  never  been  slow  to 
put  itself  on  record  in  favor  of  civic  and  even  political  issues, 
when  such  issues  appealed  to  the  feeling  of  the  majority.  At 
this  session  the  administration  of  President  Taft  and  the  at- 
titude of  his  Secretary  of  Agriculture  came  in  for  words  of 
censure.  The  charge  was  the  too  evident  disposition  to  favor 
the  liquor  interests  of  the  country,  as  shown  by  the  acceptance 


331 


History  of  Methodism. 


on  the  part  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  of  the  chairman- 
ship of  the  International  Brewers'  Convention,  at  Chicago,  in 
1911.  The  same  frankness  of  sentiment  characterized  the  ut- 
terances of  the  Conference  and  of  individual  members  when  re- 
ports were  made  on  the  work  in  South  America,  Mexico,  the 
Philippine  Islands,  Rome,  and  France.  Romanism,  which  is 
dominant  in  these  countries,  was  characterized  as  still  main- 
taining the  spirit  of  the  Inquisition;  and  the  attitude  of  the 
American  administration,  as  touching  Romanism  in  the  Phil- 
ippines, was  plainly  resented.  These  strictures  on  Rome  stirred 
the  wrath  of  Archbishop  Ireland,  the  resident  Romish  prelate 
of  Minneapolis.  A  continent-wide  sensation  resulted  from  the 
onset  of  the  Archbishop  and  the  replies  of  the  Methodists. 

The  constantly  increasing  delegations  in  the  General  Con- 
ference in  the  North  had  already  become  a  source  of  much  con- 
cern. A  committee  appointed  to  report  as  to  the  needs  of 
change,  or  reduction  of  ratio,  reported  favorably  on  a  proposi- 
tion of  reduction,  but  the  General  Conference  rejected  the  re- 
port by  an  overwhelming  vote. 

At  a  previous  session  the  General  Conference  had  appointed 
a  commission  to  submit  a  plan  for  the  establishment  of  a  Court 
of  Appeals,  and  especially  such  a  body  as  should  have  power 
to  review  and  pass  upon  the  acts  of  the  General  Conference. 
At  this  session  the  commission  submitted  its  report,  favoring 
the  establishment  of  such  a  court.  This  has  always  been  a 
crux  in  the  legislation  and  administration  of  the  Church  in  the 
North.  The  report  of  the  commission  was  very  ably  discussed 
from  both  the  positive  and  the  negative  viewpoints ;  but  it  soon 
became  clear  that  either  the  plans  submitted  were  not  definite 
enough  or  that  the  mind  of  the  Conference  had  not  sufficiently 
ripened  toward  the  ideal  of  an  extraneous  check  to  surrender 
primacy  over  its  own  acts.  The  report,  therefore,  went  by  de- 
fault. 

The  question  of  a  negro  incumbent  in  the  Episcopal  College 
has  been  a  vexing  demand  in  the  Northern  Connection  since 
1872.  It  was  clamant  at  this  session.  The  colored  people  de- 
sired the  election  of  a  General  Superintendent  who  might  be 
assigned  by  the  other  bishops  to  continually  preside  over  the 
colored  Conferences,  but  who  should  be  in  all  other  respects  a 


Colored  Bishops — Age  Limit — New  Bishops.  B35 


bishop  among  equals.  To  this  request  it  was  replied  that  such 
a  General  Superintendent  would  stand  upon  an  unconstitu- 
tional footing.  The  colored  delegates  requested  that  a  special 
commission  be  appointed  to  consider  the  whole  question.  The 
commission  reported  as  follows:  "It  is  not  desired  by  the  col- 
ored Conferences  and,  under  present  conditions  of  public  senti- 
ment, it  is  not  practicable  to  elect  a  colored  superintendent 
who  shall  preside  over  white  Conferences  and  supervise  our 
white  work.  Under  the  constitution  we  cannot  elect  a  colored 
bishop  exclusively  for  colored  Conferences,  as  any  bishop  elected 
must  be  a  General  Superintendent.  That  fact  was  recognized 
by  the  General  Conference  of  1904  in  submitting  the  proposed 
change  of  the  constitution  to  provide  for  bishops  for  races  and 
languages."  The  commission  concluded  by  recommending  that 
the  General  Conference  submit  to  the  Annual  Conferences  an 
amendment  to  the  constitution  providing  for  a  bishop  for  the 
negro  race  in  the  United  States  of  America  and  limiting  his 
supervision  to  the  same.  The  report  was  accepted  by  the  Con- 
ference. This  action  and  others  akin  thereto  lead  to  the  obser- 
vation that  the  Church  in  the  North  grows  steadily  more  con- 
servative. Its  radicalism  was  once  its  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic, but  that  has  been  modified  until  it  moves  within  lines 
that  have  become  traditional  and  prophetic.  This  fact  was 
strongly  emphasized  in  the  adoption  of  the  comprehensive  con- 
stitution of  1904  and  the  constant  tendency  toward  the  estab- 
lishment of  other  restrictions. 

The  fixing  of  the  age  limit  for  the  episcopacy  was  not  accom- 
plished without  great  opposition.  A  pronounced  effort  was 
also  made  to  restore  the  time  limit  to  the  pastorate,  and  in 
keeping  with  this  output  of  conservatism  was  a  renewed  effort 
to  have  considered  the  age-long  demand  for  an  elective  presid- 
ing eldership.  The  defeat  of  this  movement  showed  that  the 
mind  of  the  Connection  had  at  least  reached  a  standstill  con- 
cerning further  efforts  to  change  or  modify  the  episcopacy. 

The  Committee  on  Episcopacy  reported,  recommending  the 
election  of  eight  new  bishops.  The  Conference  proceeded  to 
this  election  and  took  twenty-eight  ballots  before  completing 
its  choice.  The  balloting  occupied  nine  full  days.  The  bishops 
elected  were:  Homer  C.  Stuntz,  Theodore  S.  Henderson,  W.  O. 


336 


History  of  Methodism. 


Shepard,  Naphtali  Luccock,  Francis  J.  McConnell,  Frederick 
D.  Leete,  Richard  J.  Cooke,  and  William  P.  Thirkield. 

Bishop  Stuntz  was  fifty-odd  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his 
election.  A  man  of  large  culture,  a  prince  of  the  platform, 
and  having  had  a  wide  experience  in  the  administrations  of 
the  missions  of  the  Church,  he  was  eminently  fitted  for  his  new 
office. 

Bishop  Henderson,  about  the  same  age  of  Bishop  Stuntz,  was 
from  the  pastorate  of  Hanson  Place  Church,  Brooklyn.  He  was 
well  known  throughout  the  Connection,  college-bred,  capable, 
spiritual,  and  well  fitted  for  leadership. 

Bishop  Shepard,  fifty  years  of  age,  was  also  from  the  pas- 
torate. He  was  described  at  the  time  as  being  a  thoughtful 
and  evangelistic  preacher  and  a  good  administrator. 

Bishop  Luccock,  somewhat  older  than  his  three  comrades 
just  named,  was  one  of  the  best-loved  men  in  the  two  Method- 
isms.  He  was  also  from  the  pastorate,  a  pastor  of  pastors.  As 
a  preacher  he  was  eloquent,  strong,  spiritual,  and  evangelistic. 
But,  alas!  he  was  not  long  to  be  spared  to  the  Church.  His 
death  occurred  during  the  quadrennium  following  his  election. 

Bishop  McConnell  was  President  of  De  Pauw  University  and 
an  author  of  considerable  note,  as  well  as  a  man  of  recognized 
ability  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  platform.  He  has  become  one 
of  the  great  men  in  the  episcopacy  of  his  Church. 

Bishop  Leete  came  from  the  pastorate  in  Detroit.  He 
had  a  reputation  for  organization,  and  since  his  election  to 
the  episcopacy  has  been  stationed  in  difficult  and  testing  po- 
sitions of  service.  He  is  a  man  of  cordial  spirit,  accomplished 
and  effective  in  his  ministry. 

Bishop  Cooke  was  well  known  to  the  Methodists  of  the  South, 
having  been  long  a  member  of  the  Holston  Conference  of  his 
Church.  He  was  Book  Editor  at  the  time  of  his  election  and 
had  proved  his  ability  as  preacher,  educator,  and  author. 

Bishop  Thirkield  was  also  well  known  to  the  ministers  and 
members  of  the  Southern  Connection,  having  spent  many  years 
of  service  in  the  colored  work  in  the  South.  His  wide  knowl- 
edge of  that  work,  his  fine  spirit,  and  his  generally  large  capa- 
bilities recommended  him  for  the  office  of  bishop.  Since  his 
election  his  work  has  been  entirely  in  the  South. 


Missionary  Bishops — Officers — Fraternal  Address.  .'537 


The  two  missionary  bishops  elected  at  this  session  of  the 
Conference  were  Dr.  J.  W.  Robinson,  for  Southern  Asia,  and 
Dr.  W.  P.  Eveland,  for  Southeastern  Asia.  Bishop  Eveland 
met  a  tragic  death  in  August,  1910,  being  electrocuted  through 
the  contact  of  a  steel  fishing  rod  with  a  surcharged  overhead 
wire  while  fishing  in  a  trout  brook  in  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Other  elections  had  at  this  session  of  the  Conference  were: 
Dr.  S.  Earl  Taylor  and  Bishop  W.  F.  Oldham,  Secretaries  of 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions;  Drs.  F.  M.  North,  Robert 
Forbes,  Ward  Piatt,  and  C.  M.  Boswell,  Secretaries  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions;  Dr.  Thomas  Nicholson,  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Education;  Dr.  D.  G.  Downey,  Secretary  of  the 
Sunday  School  Board ;  and  Dr.  J.  B.  Hingeley,  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Conference  Claimants.  Dr.  George  P.  Eckman  was 
elected  Editor  of  the  New  York  Christian  A  dvocate,  to  succeed 
Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  who  declined  reelection.  Dr.  W.  V.  Kelley 
was  reelected  Editor  of  the  Methodist  Review;  Dr.  John  T. 
MacFarland,  Editor  of  the  Sunday  School  Publications;  and 
Dr.  Dan  B.  Brummitt,  Editor  of  the  Epworth  Herald. 

The  fraternal  messenger  of  the  Church,  South,  to  this  Gen- 
eral Conference  was  Rev.  F.  M.  Thomas,  D.D.,  at  that  time  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Louisville  District.  His  address  made  a 
remarkably  happy  impression.  Dr.  Thomas  had  been  a  member 
of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Federation  and  had  taken  part  in 
the  negotiations  looking  toward  unification.  His  periods  were 
shot  through  with  a  fine  sentiment  of  unity  and  were  eloquently 
and  effectively  phrased.  Amongst  other  noteworthy  things,  he 
said: 

When  we  consider  the  forces  in  American  life  which  are  rapidly 
overcoming  the  sectionalism  of  the  past,  it  is  high  time  that  all  lovers 
of  Methodism  should  address  themselves  to  the  task  of  producing  on 
this  continent  a  truly  national  Methodism,  one  that  can  strike  root 
and  flourish  everywhere  in  our  republic.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on 
human  nature  that  the  social  and  political  forces  working  for  homo- 
geneity have  far  outstripped  the  Churches.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the 
fact  that  the  religious  feeling  is  the  deepest  emotion  of  life,  and  in 
the  effort  to  protect  itself  from  change  it  not  infrequently  clings  tena- 
ciously to  all  the  bitterness  and  misunderstandings  associated  with 
its  history.  One  of  your  distinguished  ministers  recently  remarked: 
22 


338 


J I  i.story  of  Methodism. 


"While  fraternal  messages  are  being  delivered,  we  are  all  love;  but 
afterwards  we  get  down  to  business  and  make  appropriations  to  invade 
each  other's  territory." 

The  one  hundred  and  sixty-seventh  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Wesleyan  Connection,  in  England,  held  its  session  in  July,  1910, 
in  Bradford,  England.  At  that  time  it  was  able  to  report  more 
than  eight  hundred  thousand  members.  The  vigorous  life  and 
active  testimony  of  the  Connection  were  never  more  apparent 
than  at  this  time.  The  Rev.  John  Hornabrook  was  the  Presi- 
dent incumbent  for  this  year.  During  this  quadrennium  the 
Conference  had  the  presidency,  besides  that  of  Dr.  Hornabrook, 
of  two  men  well  known  to  American  Methodists — namely,  the 
Rev.  Luke  Wiseman,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.D. 

The  basis  of  Church  membership,  about  which  we  have  al- 
ready written,  was  a  point  of  much  interest  at  the  1910  session 
in  England.  In  the  debates  on  this  matter  it  was  freely  charged 
that  there  was  much  looseness  in  the  rules  governing  member- 
ship and  that  great  losses  had  resulted  to  the  Connection 
through  this  laxity.  The  result  of  the  discussion  and  the  vot- 
ing was  that  the  plan  should  be  continued,  but  that  provision 
should  be  made  for  recognizing  all  devout  communicants  as 
members  of  the  Church. 

About  this  time  in  England  the  King's  declaration,  or  the 
oath  to  be  taken  by  the  King  of  England  at  the  time  of  his 
coronation,  was  a  matter  of  deep  interest  to  all  the  people  of 
the  British  Isles.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  it  should  get  be- 
fore the  religious  bodies.  Sir  Robert  Perks  advocated  a  resolu- 
tion asking  for  the  elimination  from  the  oath  of  certain  words 
offensive  to  Roman  Catholics.  Other  lay  members  of  the  Con- 
ference, as  Arthur  Henderson,  M.P.,  and  Hon.  Walter  Runci- 
man,  his  associate,  advocated  nonaction  on  the  part  of  the  Con- 
ference. The  result  was  to  leave  the  matter  as  it  was  found. 
At  this  session  the  "woman  question"  was  up  for  discus-ion 
and  settlement.  Dr.  Scott  Lidgett  became  an  ardent  advocate 
of  the  cause  of  female  suffrage  in  the  Church,  and  it  was  large 
ly  through  his  advocacy  that  the  affirmative  side  of  the  issue 
carried.  Women  are  now  eligible  to  election  by  the  synods  to 
seats  in  the  Annual  Conference. 

It  would  seem  that  at  this  time  the  issue  as  jtetween  a 


Time  Limit — Wesleyan  Conference.  3.°>9 


limited  and  an  unlimited  pastorate  was  contagious  through- 
out Methodism.  Both  the  Southern  and  the  Canadian  General 
Conferences  discussed  it  in  their  general  sittings,  and  it  was 
taken  up  lyy  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  a  spirit  of  unusual  in- 
terest and  insistency.  After  much  discussion,  however,  it  be- 
came plain  that  a  final  conclusion  could  not  be  reached.  The 
Conference  therefore  passed  this  resolution  :  "That,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  this  Conference,  the  opinion  of  our  people  upon  the  ex- 
tension of  the  pastoral  term  should  be  ascertained ;  but  before 
this  step  is  taken,  all  the  conditions  and  necessary  safeguards 
involved,  including  the  principle  itself  and  the  method  of  se- 
curing this  enlarged  power,  should  be  discussed  and  prepared 
by  a  special  committee  to  report  to  the  next  Conference." 

The  Wesleyan  Conference  for  1911  met  for  the  second  time  in 
Cardiff,  Wales.  Thirteen  or  fourteen  female  delegates  appeared 
and  took  their  seats.  Mrs.  Hughes,  the  widow  of  the  famous 
London  missionary,  was  their  leader.  The  President  of  the 
Conference  was  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  of  whom  we  have  already 
spoken  as  being  well  known  to  our  American  Methodists. 

The  session  of  the  Conference  for  1912  was  convened  in  Liver- 
pool, a  city  not  only  great  in  the  civic  and  industrial  life  of 
England,  but  also  of  grateful  memory  to  Methodists.  The  Con- 
ference was  the  occasion  for  a  review  of  the  history  of  a  cen- 
tury. The  fathers  of  1812  would  have  been  astonished  at  the 
growth  of  one  hundred  years.  The  Methodist  societies  of  the 
world  then  had  3G7,401  members,  of  whom  170,000  were  in  the 
United  States  and  the  remainder  in  Great  Britain.  Dr.  Coke 
was  Superintendent  of  the  Irish,  Welsh,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
Newfoundland  Missions.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  was  retained  in 
London  as  the  factotum  of  the  Bible  Society  and  for  other  pub- 
lic engagements. 

The  session  for  1913  met  on  July  16  in  the  city  of  Plymouth, 
a  city  which  had  before  welcomed  the  historic  body.  Dr.  Wal- 
ler was  the  President  when  the  Conference  met  there  in  1895, 
but  this  great  man  was  now  no  more.  Rev.  Luke  Wiseman,  a 
man  whose  voice  has  frequently  been  heard  on  this  side  of  the 
waters,  the  ex-President  of  the  Conference,  spoke  strong  words 
concerning  the  new  sense  of  sin  which  is  a  characteristic  of  our 
day  and  emphasized  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  tell  men  where 


340 


History  of  Methodism 


salvation  from  sin  may  be  found.  The  Conference  appointed 
Dr.  Wiseman  Secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  in  succes- 
sion of  Dr.  H.  J.  Pope,  whose  name  had  been  entered  in  the  list 
of  those  translated  to  the  Connection  of  the  skies. 

The  great  membership  discussion,  of  which  a  good  deal  has 
been  written,  was  brought  to  a  happy  conclusion  at  this  session 
of  the  Conference.  That  conclusion  was  embodied  in  the  fol- 
lowing canons:  "(1)  All  persons  are  welcomed  into  member- 
ship who  sincerely  desire  to  be  saved  from  their  sins  through 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  who  seek  to  have  fellowship 
with  Christ  himself  and  his  people  in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church.  (2)  All  such  shall  have  their  names  entered  on  a  class 
book,  shall  be  placed  under  the  pastoral  care  of  a  class  leader, 
and  shall  be  members  of  the  weekly  class  meeting.  .  .  .  (5) 
It  is  expected  of  all  members  that  they  attend  as  regularly  as 
possible  all  the  means  of  grace,  public  and  private.  Such  are : 
The  worship  of  God  in  the  congregation,  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  class  and  society  meetings,  and  the  observance 
of  family  and  private  prayer.  ...  (9)  Any  member  who, 
without  sufficient  reason,  persistently  absents  himself  from  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  the  meetings  for  Christian  fellowship  shall 
be  visited  both  by  his  leader  and  minister  in  order  that  full 
opportunity  for  his  return  to  fellowship  may  be  accorded.  The 
names  of  any  who  by  prolonged  absence  from  our  assemblies 
sever  themselves  from  Church  membership  shall  be  removed 
by  the  minister  acting  in  consultation  with  the  leaders'  meet- 
ing." 

The  list  of  obituaries  presented  to  the  several  sessions  of  the 
Conference  during  the  four  years  now  under  consideration  con- 
tained some  of  the  most  distinguished  names  known  to  modern 
Wesleyan  Methodism.  Amongst  these  were  the  names  of  Rev. 
Henry  J.  Foster,  the  noted  Methodist  antiquarian  and  editor 
for  the  Wesley  Historical  Society;  Rev.  Robert  Culley,  who  had 
for  two  and  a  half  years  been  Book  Steward  of  the  Church ; 
William  H.  Dahlinger,  who  had  used  his  microscope  in  the 
seventies  in  the  battle  against  materialism  and  who  had  se- 
cured high  praise  from  both  Darwin  and  Tyndall ;  Rev.  Charles 
H.  Kelley,  the  veteran  ex-President  of  the  Conference,  who,  to 
his  other  great  services  to  the  Church  and  his  country,  had 


Wesleyan  Leaders — Bishop  Wilson — Fernley  Lectures.  34  1 


added  that  of  minister  extraordinary  to  the  soldiers  of  Eng- 
land. His  obituary  spoke  of  his  wonderful  influence  as  a  mili- 
tary chaplain.  "The  word  preached  at  parade  services  or 
spoken  in  personal  intercourse  was  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation to  hundreds  of  private  soldiers,  marines,  noncommis- 
sioned and  commissioned  officers.  He  had  the  heart  of  a  Chris- 
tian soldier,  and  all  his  life  long  was  forward  to  strike  a  blow 
for  truth  and  justice."  To  the  great  loss  which  the  Connection 
sustained  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Kelley  was  added  that  of  the 
death  of  Drs.  Waller  and  Stephenson,  both  ex-Presidents  of 
the  Conference  and  both  well  known  to  American  Methodists. 
Dr.  Waller  was  particularly  endeared  to  the  Methodists  of  the 
South.  He  never  missed  an  opportunity  of  saying  a  word  that 
might  promote  close  friendly  relations  with  Southern  Method- 
ism. He  had  occupied  many  of  the  foremost  positions  in  his 
Church  and  had  filled  them  all  with  credit  and  distinction.  Dr. 
Stephenson  will  be  remembered  on  this  side  the  waters  as  a 
man  of  great  tenderness,  warmth  of  heart,  a  master  of  genuine 
learning,  and  a  preacher  of  profound  evangelistic  earnestness. 
The  Connection  had  scarcely  recovered  from  the  shock  produced 
by  the  death  of  other  distinguished  leaders  when  it  was  called 
to  mourn  the  passing  away  of  Dr.  Pope,  its  veteran  home  mis- 
sionary leader  and  an  ex-President  of  the  Conference.  At  the 
session  of  the  Conference  in  1912  a  beautiful  memorial  service 
was  held  for  Drs.  Pope  and  Stephenson  and  Mrs.  Wiseman,  the 
wife  of  the  ex-President  of  the  Conference. 

At  the  session  of  the  Conference  in  1912  Bishop  Alpheus  W. 
Wilson,  of  the  Church,  South,  was  present  as  fraternal  messen 
ger.  His  address  delivered  at  an  open  session  of  the  Confer- 
ence was  at  the  time  described  as  masterly  and  making  one 
think  of  the  utterances  of  the  great  Dr.  Rigg. 

The  most  anxious  hours  of  the  Conference  of  1913  were  caused 
by  the  Fernley  Lectures  of  1912.  These  lectures  are  on  a  foun- 
dation meant  to  promote  theological  thought  and  discussion  on 
the  basis  of  the  doctrinal  standards  and  consciousness  of  Wes- 
leyan Methodism.  Dr.  Jackson,  to  whom  reference  has  been 
made  in  connection  with  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church,  was 
the  lecturer  for  1912.  Much  complaint  had  been  expressed  con- 
cerning the  utterances  of  Dr.  Jackson  in  these  lectures.  Sev- 


342 


History  of  Methodism. 


eral  pamphlets  had  been  issued,  and  in  the  representative  Con- 
ference two  laymen  brought  forward  a  motion  that  the  pas- 
toral Conference  be  requested  not  to  appoint  Dr.  Jackson  as 
tutor  at  Didsbury,  for  which  post  his  name  was  being  urged. 
The  Conference,  after  fully  considering  the  contentions  of  the 
accusers  and  the  accused,  passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that 
while  regretting  that  Dr.  Jackson  had  indulged  in  utterances 
so  unhappily  expressed  as  likely  to  be  misunderstood,  it  was 
agreed  that,  rightly  understood,  his  teachings  were  not  un- 
sound.  Dr.  Jackson  went  to  Didsbury. 

In  1855  the  first  Methodist  Conference  held  in  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  met  in  Sydney,  in  the  continent  of  Australia.  In 
the  previous  year  the  mother  Conference  of  England  had  re- 
solved that  the  missions  in  Australia,  Van  Diemen's  Land,  New 
Zealand,  the  Friendly  Islands,  and  the  Fiji  Islands  should  be 
formally  organized  as  the  Australian  Methodist  Connection, 
with  an  Annual  Conference  of  its  own.  The  fourth  General 
Conference  of  the  United  Australasian  Church,  but  which  was 
the  thirteenth  since  the  first  organization,  met  in  the  city  of 
Brisbane,  Queensland,  on  June  12,  1013.  Sixty-three  ministers 
from  the  five  Annual  Conferences  and  an  equal  number  of  lay 
representatives  were  present.  Those  from  West  Australia  had 
traveled  nearly  three  thousand  miles — a  fact  which  gives  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  vast  territorial  extent  over  which  the  Church 
of  the  Antipodes  must  spread  its  gospel.  The  session  was  held 
in  Albert  Street  Church,  a  noble  and  attractive  building,  one  of 
the  evidences  of  the  sx>irit  and  advance  of  the  Australia  of  the 
present  day.  The  ex-President,  Eev.  Dr.  Youngman,  delivered 
an  address  dealing  with  events  which  had  transpired  during 
the  triennium.  The  Conference  meets  every  three  years. 

The  business  of  greatest  importance,  and  that  which  claimed 
and  received  the  greatest  attention,  was  that  of  foreign  mis- 
sions. The  Sydney  Board  of  Management  reported  that  since 
the  General  Conference  at  Adelaide,  three  years  before,  the  in- 
come had  increased  by  thirt}r-nine  per  cent,  the  last  year's  re- 
turn being  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  needs 
of  the  unoccupied  areas  of  New  Britain,  New  Guinea,  and  the 
Solomon  Islands,  together  with  those  of  the  large  Indian  popu- 
lation in  Fiji,  then  numbering  fifty  thousand,  were  strongly 


In  the  South  Seas. 


343 


urged.  The  cry  of  the  regions  beyond  in  the  South  Seas  also 
found  expression.  A  self-supporting  district  embracing  the 
whole  of  Fiji  was  established.  Similar  action  was  taken  with 
reference  to  Samoa.  Reunion  of  the  Free  Church  of  Tonga 
with  the  Methodist  Church  was  earnestly  discussed,  and  plans 
for  the  same  were  put  forward.  Resolutions  recognizing  that 
the  Free  Church  is  true  to  Methodist  doctrine  and  showing 
great  liberality,  and  asking  that  reunion  be  considered,  were 
adopted  without  a  dissentient  voice.  On  the  question  of  Church 
membership  the  Australasian  Church  was  having  difficulty,  as 
were  the  others.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  report.  It 
was  resolved  that  baptized  children  should  be  more  carefully 
looked  after,  and  modern  methods  in  Sunday  school  work  were 
heartily  Commended. 

In  1893  the  Methodist  people  of  New  Zealand  were  gathered 
into  a  separate  and  independent  Connection,  to  exist  under  the 
title  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand.  It  has  juris 
diction  in  the  dominion  of  New  Zealand  and  the  dependencies 
thereof,  as  at  present  constituted,  and  in  such  other  parts  of 
Australasia  as  shall  from  time  to  time  be  agreed  upon  between 
the  General  Conference  of  Australasia  and  itself.  It  has  full 
powers  of  legislation,  subject  only  to  the  limitations  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference.  The  history  of  Methodism  in  New  Zealand  is 
full  of  interest.  The  Rev.  S.  Leigh,  the  first  Wesleyan  minister 
in  Australia,  opened  a  mission  to  the  Maoris  in  that  island  in 
1818.  After  that  the  work  seems  to  have  been  neglected  for  a 
time.  Later  it  was  reenforced  and  formed  a  part  of  the  Tonga 
District.  When  the  islands  were  proclaimed  an  English  colony 
in  1840,  services  began  to  be  held  amongst  the  settlers.  The 
work  immediately  prospered.  In  1874  the  Churches  which  had 
been  organized,  both  amongst  the  natives  and  the  English  set- 
tlers, were  formed  into  an  Annual  Conference.  But  the  vast 
distance  between  the  islands  and  the  mainland  created  a  de- 
sire for  an  independent  organization.  In  1896  the  Bible  Chris- 
tians and  the  United  Methodist  Churches  coalesced  with  the 
Wesleyan  Church  of  New  Zealand.  The  Primitive  Methodists 
at  first  declined  to  join  in  the  movement  and  agreed  to  do  so 
only  on  the  prospect  of  an  independent  organization  in  the  is- 
land ;  so  the  Australasian  General  Conference,  by  an  almost 


344 


History  of  Methodism. 


unanimous  vote,  acceded  to  the  demand,  and  the  independence 
of  the  young  Connection  began  from  January,  1013.  The 
Church  membership,  adult  and  junior,  numbered  at  this  time 
twenty-six  thousand.  Over  thirty  thousand  children  were  in 
the  Sunday  schools.  The  United  Conference  began  its  session 
February  6,  1913,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Youngman,  President  of  the 
Australasian  General  Conference,  being  present  as  ex  officio 
President. 

The  steady  recurrence  of  the  Ecumenical,  or  World  Method- 
ist, Conference  has  served  to  make  it  seem  as  fixed  an  institu- 
tion of  Methodism  as  are  the  yearly  and  General  Conferences. 
That  large  and  salutary  results  have  flowed  from  these  decen- 
nial gatherings  is  a  fact  which  becomes  constantly  more  appar- 
ent. The  present-day  sense  of  Methodist  unity  and  solidarity 
is  particularly  a  product  of  ecumenical  fellowship.  The  time 
may  be  when  these  world  assemblages  will  come  to  be  endowed 
with  a  kind  of  administrative,  and  even  legislative,  authority. 
Such  realized  prognostication  would  only  be  a  return  of  his- 
tory to  its  own  precedents. 

The  fourth  Ecumenical  Conference  was  convened  in  Metro- 
politan Church,  Toronto,  Canada,  October  4,  1911.  It  consisted 
of  five  hundred  accredited  delegates,  about  equally  distributed 
between  laymen  and  ministers.  The  delegations  were  divided 
into  two  sections,  three  hundred  being  from  the  Western  or 
American  Section  and  two  hundred  from  the  Eastern  or  Euro- 
pean and  Australasian  Section.  The  following-named  Churches 
were  represented — viz. :  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Connection,  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  the 
Tnion  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  British  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Japanese  Methodist  Church — 
all  of  the  Western  Section;  In  the  Eastern  Section  were  the 
following  bodies:  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  Primitive  Meth- 
odist Church,  United  Methodist  Church,  Australasian  Method- 
ist Church,  Iiisli  Methodist  Church.  Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 


Fourth  Ecumenical  Conference.  345 


Independent  Methodist  Church,  French  Methodist  Church,  and 
South  African  Methodist  Church. 

The  Conference  opened  with  an  invocation  by  the  Rev.  Albert 
Carman,  D.D.,  Senior  General  Superintendent  of  the  Canadian 
Church.  Dr.  S.  D.  Chown,  Associate  Superintendent  of  the 
same  body,  led  the  Conference  in  the  responsive  reading  of  the 
nineteenth  Psalm.  The  Conference  sermon  was  preached  by  the 
Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.D.,  President  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Conference.  This  sermon  was  based  on  Matthew  ix.  36-38: 
"But  when  he  saw  the  multitudes,  he  was  moved  with  com- 
passion," etc.  The  preacher  showed  that  Methodism  has  been 
an  expression  of  the  spirit  and  attitude  of  Christ  toward  the 
multitude.  "What  do  we  want,"  he  asked,  "that  the  Church 
may  become  efficient?  Surely  we  want  a  less  divided  Chris- 
tendom. The  trouble  for  a  long  time  past  has  been  that  each 
denomination  has  been  working  for  its  own  hand,  and  all  have 
not  joined  in  working  for  the  universal  good.  .  .  .  But  the 
Church  wants  something  besides  unity.  It  wants  that  touch  of 
compassion  which  made  Christ  the  harvester  that  he  was.  .  .  . 
We  want  a  wider  catholicity.  The  Church  keeps  out  many  peo- 
ple who  at  the  bottom  have  a  right  to  come  in,  because  it  is 
narrow,  crude.  We  have  set  up  certain  standards,  and  we  say : 
'These  are  eternal,  and  any  one  who  comes  into  the  Church 
must  come  over  the  wall  of  these  standards.'  Our  Master  did 
not  do  that.  He  approached  men  from  another  point  of  view, 
and  we  must  learn  from  him  to  interpret  the  best  that  is  in  men 
in  order  that  sympathetically  we  may  reach  them  and  win 
them.  ...  If  that  comes  as  a  result  of  this  Conference,  it 
will  be  historic." 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  first  day  the  Conference  was  organ- 
ized, with  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson  presiding.  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll, 
Dr.  James  Chapman,  Alderman  Snape,  and  Bishop  Phillips 
were  elected  Secretaries,  Dr.  Carroll  being  named  as  Secretary 
in  Chief.  The  formal  address  of  welcome  was  delivered  by  Dr. 
William  Briggs,  Book  Steward  of  the  Church  of  Canada.  He 
was  followed  by  Bishop  Hamilton,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church ;  Bishop  Parks,  of  the  African  Methodist  Church ;  and 
Bishop  Hoss,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  In 
the  course  of  his  address  Bishop  Hoss  said  :  "Our  stock  in  trade 


346 


History  of  Methodism. 


is  our  religion.  When  that  goes,  we  shall  be  the  most  poverty- 
stricken  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  for  we  shall  have  noth- 
ing left  to  fall  back  upon — no  long-stretching  centuries  of  his- 
tory', no  moss-covered  cathedrals,  no  monumental  volumes  of 
theology,  no  elaborate  ritual  of  worship.  God  himself,  con- 
sciously known,  worshiped,  adored,  and  loved,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  is  our  only  and  our  everlasting  portion." 

Responses  to  the  addresses  of  welcome  were  made  by  Rev. 
Henry  Haigh,  D.D.,  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart,  Rev.  S.  S. 
Henshaw,  and  Mr.  R.  W.  Essex,  M.P.,  these  gentlemen  all  speak- 
ing for  the  Eastern  Section.  In  the  course  of  his  very  felicitous 
address  Sir  Robert  Perks,  Bart.,  made  the  following  state- 
ment: "We  have  passed  through  thirty  years  of  momentous 
change.  What  are  the  next  thirty  years  going  to  bring  about? 
Greater  population,  greater  power,  greater  wealth,  greater- 
learning,  marvelous  invention,  the  development  of  industrial 
resources  of  this  and  other  dominions  of  the  British  crown  and 
corners  of  the  earth.  But  what  are  all  these  unless  beyond  is 
a  religious  and  godly  and  moral  opinion?  And  it  is,  I  believe, 
by  this  test,  and  this  alone,  that  this  Conference  shall  be  tried." 

The  second  day  opened  with  an  address  on  "Methodism  in  the 
Western  Section  during  the  Last  Ten  Years"  by  Dr;  Carroll. 
"Methodism  is  a  life,"  said  Dr.  Carroll,  "therefore  Methodist 
growth  is  both  natural  and  necessary."  This  essay  was  fol- 
lowed by  an  address  on  the  same  topic  by  Bishop  Hendrix, 
whose  remarks  applied  particularly  to  the  growth  and  progress 
of  the  Church  in  the  South.  An  address  by  the  Rev.  Howard 
Sprague,  D.D.,  of  the  Canadian  Church,  took  much  the  same 
range  with  reference  to  the  Church  of  Canada.  A  doubly  in- 
teresting contribution  to  this  session  was  the  address  by  the 
Rev.  S.  Ogata,  of  the  Japan  Methodist  Church.  The  afternoon 
session  of  the  second  day  was  distinguished  by  a  discriminating 
address  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Simpson  Johnson,  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Church.  All  these  discourses  were  appropriately 
added  to  with  pertinent  remarks  and  impromptu  discussions 
by  members  of  the  Conference.  On  the  third  day  Dr.  W.  H. 
Fitchett,  of  the  Austrnlinn  Church,  delivered  a  characteristic 
address  on  "Methodism  :  Its  Place  in  tlie  Church  Universal." 
Other  addresses  delivered  on  tin's  day  were  by  Rev.  N.  Luccock, 


Ecumenical  Addresses. 


D.D.,  Prof.  J.  A.  Bray,  Dr.  T.  H.  Lewis,  of  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church,  Bishop  William  Burt,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  and  M.  le  Pasteur  Thomas  Ilocart,  of  the 
French  Methodist  Church.  In  the  afternoon  Rev.  A.  B.  Leon- 
ard, D.D.,  and  Bishop  Hoss  occupied  the  platform.  On  the 
fourth  and  fifth  days  addresses  were  delivered  on  "Methodist 
Theology"  and  on  "The  Religious  Aspects  of  Industry  and 
Commerce."  On  the  latter  topic  was  heard  Hon.  Charles  W. 
Fairbanks,  ex- Vice  President  of  the  United  States.  In  the 
morning  of  the  Sabbath  Dr.  James  R.  Day  preached  in  Metro- 
politan Church,  and  at  the  evening  hour  Dr.  Fitchett  filled 
the  pulpit  at  the  same  place.  On  Monday,  the  sixth  day,  "The 
Results  of  Bible  Criticism"  was  discussed  by  Dr.  A.  S.  Peak, 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  In  the  afternoon  the  dis- 
cussion was  continued  by  Dr.  H.  C.  Sheldon,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  and  Dr.  H.  Maldwyn  Hughes,  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Church.  The  subjects  taken  up  during  the  remainder 
of  the  session  were:  "The  Church  and  Modern  Life,"  "The 
Church  and  the  Nation,"  "The  Church  and  the  Message,"  "The 
Church  and  Social  Service,"  "The  Church  in  the  Household," 
"The  Church  and  the  Child,"  "The  Church  and  the  Young  Peo- 
ple," "Larger  Use  of  Lay  Agencies,"  "Woman's  Claims  and  Re- 
sponsibilities," "The  Church  and  Temperance,"  "The  Training 
of  the  Ministry,"  "The  Church  and  Education,"  "Methodist 
Literature,"  "The  Relations  between  the  Methodist  Churches." 
Some  of  the  principal  speakers  under  these  topics  were:  Rev.  S. 
D.  Chown,  D.D.;  Mr.  N.  W.  Rowell,  K.C.,  of  the  Canadian 
Church ;  Dr.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  of  the  Wesleyan  Church ;  Rev. 
Gross  Alexander,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South;  Bishop  Quayle,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church; 
Bishop  Candler,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South; 
Rev.  W.  J.  Molton,  of  the  Wesleyan  Church ;  and  others.  These 
discussions,  as  would  naturally  be  expected,  took  a  very  wide 
range;  varying  and  divergent  shades  of  theological  opinion 
found  expression  ;  conservative  and  radical  opinions  concerning 
social,  industrial,  and  ecclesiastical  matters  came  into  juxtapo- 
sition. One  got  the  impression  very  readily  that  the  men  of 
world-wide  Methodism  were  doing  their  share  of  thinking,  some 
within  traditional  lines,  some  upon  latitudinarian  grounds. 


348 


History  of  Methodism. 


Upon  the  whole,  however,  the  note  sounded  was  one  of  ortho- 
doxy  and  doctrinal  safeness. 

On  Wednesday,  October  11,  at  the  evening  hour,  a  fraternal 
session  was  held,  at  which  messages  of  greeting  were  heard 
from  representatives  of  the  world  bodies  of  the  Baptist,  Presby- 
terian, and  Congregational  Churches.  Eepresenting  the  Bap- 
tist Church  was  Rev.  J.  H.  Farmer,  LL.D.,  Dean  of  McMaster 
University.  To  the  Conference  Dr.  Farmer  said :  "You  and  we 
are  facing  the  future  together — I  trust  with  a  common  love  to 
Him  who  has  redeemed  us,  with  a  common  faith  in  Him,  a  com- 
mon confidence  in  His  gospel  that  will  make  us  strong  and 
courageous  and  true."  For  the  National  Congregational  Coun- 
cil, Dr.  S.  P.  Cadman,  D.D.,  of  Brooklyn,  X.  Y.,  was  spokes- 
man. Characterizing  the  field  of  Methodism,  Dr.  Cadman  said  : 
"It  has  been  granted  to  you  to  occupy  a  large  place  in  the 
Church  universal ;  your  people  have  won  their  spheres  as  moral 
leaders  and  social  and  political  guides.  The  list  of  your  trained 
and  educated  men,  both  among  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  has  in- 
creased with  every  decade."  The  Alliance  of  Reformed  Churches 
throughout  the  world,  holding  the  Presbyterian  system,  was 
represented  by  Dr.  John  Somerville,  of  Toronto,  Canada,  and 
Mr.  Hamilton  Cassels,  K.C.,  of  the  Province  of  Quebec.  These 
addresses  of  greetings  from  non-Methodist  world  bodies  were 
replied  to  by  Rev.  F.  L.  Wiseman,  B.A.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  and  Rev.  H.  M.  Du  Bose,  D.D.,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South. 

On  the  ninth  day  of  this  session  was  presented  the  "Mess;iL,re 
of  the  Conference  to  the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  World."  It 
was  read  by  its  author,  the  Rev.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.D.  This  ring- 
ing message  contained,  amongst  other  relevant  periods,  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Side  by  side  with  the  endeavor  after  a  world-embracing  evangelism 
must  go  the  ceaseless  effort  to  establish  a  Christian  civilization  in 
every  land.  The  salvation  of  Christ  must  find  its  complete  manifesta- 
tion in  collective  as  well  as  in  individual  life.  This  is  implied  alike 
in  his  universal  Lordship,  in  his  office  as  Redeemer,  and  in  his  religion 
as  perfect  love.  The  witness  of  Christianity  to  the  world  must  be 
fulfilled  in  its  social  aspects  and  ideals.  The  supremacy  of  love  in 
heaven  must  be  made  manifest  in  its  advancing  triumph  upon  earth. 
"As  is  heaven,  so  on  earth,"  is  the  only  ideal  that  is  correlative  with 


World  Methodist  Address. 


349 


the  Divine  Fatherhood  that  Christ  revealed.  The  eternal  sovereignty 
of  love  demands  its  temporal  and  all-embracing  expression.  Hence 
we  are  constrained  by  the  inner  logic  of  faith  to  assert  the  supremacy 
of  Christ  over  every  realm  of  human  affairs  by  the  application  of  his 
law  of  love  to  every  relationship  and  interest  of  mankind.  As  citi- 
zens we  must  seek  to  secure  in  righteousness,  wisdom,  and  complete 
unselfishness  a  truly  Christian,  and  therefore  human,  character  for 
all  law,  administration,  and  public  policy.  This  governing  principle 
supplies  practical  guidance  as  to  the  objects  that  must  be  pursued  by 
both  our  personal  and  collective,  our  private  and  public  influence.  So 
far  as  our  several  commonwealths  are  concerned,  we  must  promote 
all  measures  that  will  effectively  tend  to  eliminate  the  degrading  pov- 
erty that  injures  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  temporal  well-being  of 
multitudes,  that  implies  the  negation  of  Christian  brotherhood,  and 
that  brings  disgrace  upon  Christendom  in  the  eyes  of  the  non-Christian 
world.  We  must  labor  ceaselessly  so  to  transform  the  material  en- 
vironment of  the  peoples  that  it  may  promote,  and  not  hamper,  the 
possibilities  of  a  completely  Christian  life,  with  all  its  moral,  intel- 
lectual, and  even  physical  implications,  for  the  weakest  members 
of  the  community.  We  must  put  forth  our  utmost  efforts  to  destroy 
the  organized  inducements  to  intemperance  and  impurity  that  bring 
mammon  worship  and  self-indulgence  into  devastating,  alliance.  We 
must  strive  with  all  our  might  to  protect  the  Christian  integrity  of 
marriage  and  of  the  home.  We  must  direct  our  utmost  endeavors  to 
secure  the  truly  Christian  education  of  the  young.  We  must  welcome 
and  seek  to  extend  the  influence  of  women  in  the  councils  of  the 
Church  and  in  the  service  of  the  community.  We  must  guard  in  all 
wisdom  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  day,  showing  that  its  due  observ- 
ance is  as  precious  to  all  the  higher  needs  of  personal  character,  home 
life,  and  human  efficiency  as  it  is  to  the  fulfillment  of  religious  serv- 
ice. We  must  uphold  Christian  standards  of  morality  and  humanity 
in  the  production,  distribution,  and  use  of  material  wealth.  In  the 
sphere  of  international  relations  we  must  exert  all  our  influence  to 
abolish  war,  to  remove  all  causes  of  suspicion  and  estrangement  be- 
tween nations,  and  to  allay  all  outbursts  of  warlike  passion  when- 
ever they  arise.  In  this  connection  the  Conference,  in  union  with  the 
Methodist  Church  throughout  the  world,  offers  unfeigned  thanksgiving 
to  the  God  of  Peace  that  he  has  put  it  into  the  heart  of  his  servant, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  initiate  with  far-sighted  wisdom 
and  noble  courage  a  policy  of  universal  arbitration,  and  that  the  re- 
sponse of  the  British  government  has  enabled  him  to  inaugurate  a 
league  of  peace  into  which  we  may  well  hope  that  all  the  nations  of 
the  world  will  eventually  enter.  Further,  we  must  be  constantly  so- 
licitous that  the  contact  of  the  more  powerful  and  progressive  races 
with  the  more  backward  may  be  so  ordered  as  to  respect  the  rights 
and  promote  the  highest  interests  of  our  weaker  brethren;  never  to 
sacrifice  them  to  greed,  contempt,  or  credulity. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


A  Deceptive  Peace — Pragmatism — General  Conference  of  1914 — Epis- 
copal Address — Laymen's  Missionary  Movement — Federal  Council — 
Student  Volunteer  Movement — Junaluska — The  Vanderbilt  Case — 
New  Universities — Retirement  of  Bishop  Wilson — Senior  Bishop — 
National  Prohibition — Mexico — Pan-American  Exposition — Lay  Lead- 
ers— Japan  Methodism — Committee  on  Appeals — Limited  Episcopacy 
— Evangelism — Board  of  Education — Apostles'  Creed — Order  of  Wor- 
ship— New  Conferences — Fifth  Ecumenical — Elections — Fraternal 
Messages — Death  Roll — Canadian  Methodism — English  Methodism — 
Conclusion— 1914-1916. 

nV  yf^AY  of  the  year  1014  found  the  world  wrrapped  in  the 


1 V  I  quietness  of  a  universal  peace  which  seemed  to  have 
promise  of  perpetual  continuance.  Although  the  principal  na- 
tions of  Europe  had  for  many  years  borne  much  the  appearance 
of  an  armed  camp,  so  greatly  had  their  armies  been  augmented, 
and  although  each  was  constantly  building  new  dreadnaughts 
and  otherwise  adding  to  the  weight  of  its  navy,  yet  men  be- 
lieved peace  to  be  all  but  as  steadfast  as  the  stars  and  ac- 
cepted each  new  increase  in  the  armaments  of  the  nations  as  a 
new  guarantee  of  peace.  Nobody,  except  a  few  of  the  military 
lords  of  Europe,  wTas  sensible  of  the  near  approach  of  the  red 
Armageddon  which  was  staged  for  the  wrorld  a  few  wTeeks  later. 
The  whole  planet,  and  especially  the  religious  bodies,  had  be- 
come steeped  in  the  infection  of  peace.  Universal  evangelism 
was  being  prophesied  on  the  basis  of  international  comities. 
Arbitration  wras  the  instrumentality  looked  to  for  the  adjust- 
ment and  removal  of  annoying  differences  between  the  nations. 
The  Hague  Tribunal,  though  it  had  returned  but  a  minimum 
of  the  results  promised  by  it,  wras  still  believed  to  be  the  power- 
ful influence  which  was  to  dominate  international  politics  and 
to  secure  the  respect  of  kings  and  diets.  The  Continental  call 
to  arms  which  in  August,  1014,  sounded  "from  Calpe  unto 
Caucasus"  disillusionized  the  prophets  of  peace. 

Perhaps  the  thought  and  faith  of  the  world,  despite  their 
boast  of  enlargement  and  advance,  had  fallen  to  the  levels  of 
apathy  and  had  started  on  a  drift  toward  conditions  of  life- 
lossness  and  stagnation.    Pragmatism  had  begun  to  dominate 


(350) 


New  Order — General  Conference — Bishops'  Address.  351 


discussional  and  theological  literature,  materialism  was  neu- 
tralizing the  evangelism  of  an  earlier  period,  and  the  schools 
had  begun  to  show  signs  of  accepting  unmodified  the  ideals  of 
Continental  critical  interpretation,  an  interpretation  which 
had  long  before  lost  its  soul  of  reverence.  Perhaps  there  was 
need  of  a  dynamical  change,  a  world-quaking  reversal  of  the 
old  order.  History  has  a  consciousness,  and  he  has  been  but 
an  indifferent  student  of  recent  events  who  has  not  noted  the 
symptoms  of  change  and  turning  about,  whatever  their  cause, 
and  who  has  not  read  the  challenge  of  a  new  and  compelling 
age  which  is  fast  approaching. 

But  the  record  of  these  incipient  changes  had  not  begun  to 
be  written  nor  had  any  syllable  of  this  challenge  been  spoken 
when  on  the  6th  day  of  May,  1914,  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  met  in  Oklahoma 
City.  However,  the  recurrence  of  many  memorials  and  his- 
toric dates  during  the  two  or  three  decades  before  had  given 
to  the  Conference  the  habit  of  reminiscence  and  outlook.  In 
the  Bishops'  Address,  of  wThich  Bishop  Candler  was  the  author 
and  which  he  read  to  the  Conference,  came  an  early  paragraph 
emphasizing  an  interesting  and  important  conjunction  of  his- 
tory and  one  which  set  the  vital  statistics  of  the  Southern 
Church  in  imposing  relief.   The  address  said : 

"We  unite  with  you  in  devout  thanksgiving  to  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church  for  the  evident  tokens  of  the  divine  favor  amid  which 
the  General  Conference  convenes  at  this  time  and  place.  Great  prosper- 
ity prevails  throughout  our  widely  extended  Connection;  and  our  peo- 
ple, walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  in  the  comfort  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  are  multiplied.  One  hundred  years  ago,  when  Thomas  Coke,  the 
first  bishop  of  Methodism  in  America,  was  buried,  on  May  3,  1814,  be- 
neath the  waves  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  as  he  was  sailing  the  seas  in 
prosecution  of  his  high  mission  as  "the  foreign  minister"  of  the  Church, 
the  whole  number  of  Methodists  in  the  world  was  no  more  than  465,000. 
Now  they  number  upward  of  9,000,000,  of  whom  more  than  2,000,000  are 
members  of  our  own  beloved  Church.  In  all  the  branches  of  Methodism 
in  America  there  are  now  nearly  or  quite  as  many  members  as  there 
were  people  in  the  United  States  when  Bishop  Coke  died,  and  about  one- 
third  of  them  are  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
The  field  in  which  we  have  been  called  to  labor  most  has  always  been 
a  friendly  soil  for  Methodism.  If  the  relative  density  of  population  be 
taken  into  account,  it  will  appear  that  the  South  contains  a  larger  pro- 


352 


History  of  Methodism. 


portion  of  Methodists  than  any  other  section  of  our  country;  and  our 
branch  of  Methodism  in  America  has  occupied  more  fully  the  territory 
in  which  its  base  is  laid  than  any  other  Methodist  Church  in  the  United 
States  has  possessed  the  region  which  it  has  been  called  to  cultivate. 
In  both  the  home  and  foreign  fields  God  has  blessed  the  labor  of  our 
hands  and  given  us  abundant  fruits  for  our  toils.  The  quadrennium  now 
closing,  like  all  the  quadrennial  periods  of  our  history,  shows  large 
gains  in  both  the  number  of  our  members  and  the  increase  of  our  re- 
sources as  a  Church,  the  increase  in  our  membership  being  171,237  and 
the  total  being  2,006,209.  It  was  noted  in  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, held  in  Toronto,  Canada,  in  October,  1911,  that  the  total  increase 
of  members  in  all  the  Methodist  bodies  of  the  world  for  the  decade  from 
1900  to  1910  was  1,109,331,  of  which  increase  401,145,  or  more  than 
one-third,  was  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  It  was  also 
brought  out  on  the  same  occasion  that  approximately  one-half  of  the 
total  increase  in  all  the  branches  of  American  Methodism  was  in  our 
Church. 

This  spirited  address  also  discussed  important  problems  of 
thought  life,  social  movements,  and  doctrines.  "The  Church 
is  companionless  among  the  organizations  which  work  with 
men,  as  Jesus  is  unique  among  the  sons  of  men,"  it  declared 
in  discussing  the  divine  mission  of  the  Church.  The  large 
questions  which  relate  the  Church  to  human  progress,  human 
social  betterment,  and  education  were  set  forth  in  luminous 
and  vigorous  statement.  The  issues  of  education,  those  which 
are  general  and  those  which  had  particular  relation  to  Meth- 
odism, were  brought  forward  and  discussed,  as  were  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Church  to  certain  extraneous  and  inter-Church 
organizations  expositive  of  the  cooperative  spirit  of  the  age, 
especially  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  to  which  the  General  Conference  of  the  South  was 
the  first  of  the  great  religious  bodies  to  give  indorsement. 

It  will  be  proper  to  enter  here  a  brief  account  of  the  several 
organizations  referred  to  above,  with  an  indication  of  the  nexus 
between  each  of  them  and  the  Church.  In  addition  to  the 
Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ,  are  to  be  mentioned 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  the  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement,  the  Home  Mission  Council,  and  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement.  The  touch  with  the  Federal  Council  is 
by  the  Church  as  a  whole,  but  contact  with  the  other  organiza- 
tions is  chiefly  through  the  general  Board  of  Missions. 


Affiliated  Movements. 


The  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 
was  organized  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  in  1008,  with  thirty  con- 
stituent bodies.  It  was  founded  to  promote  the  spirit  of  unity. 
This  federation  was  born  of  the  conviction  that  the  Churches 
of  Christ  were  agreed  in  more  things,  and  in  things  more  im- 
portant, than  those  in  which  they  differed,  and  that  they  could 
do  their  best  work,  not  in  separation,  but  in  heartfelt  co- 
operation. Through  the  Council  sixteen  millions  of  Christian 
men  and  women  have  become  members  one  of  another.  The 
Federal  Council  represents  unity  without  concern  for  uni- 
formity and  strives  to  bring  forth  in  each  of  its  constituent 
bodies  its  very  best  and  to  blend  that  best  with  the  best  in  the 
others.  In  spiritual  life  and  service,  in  national  and  inter- 
national brotherhood  and  peace,  in  education  and  evangeliza- 
tion, it  seeks  the  highest  ideal  of  all.  It  stands  as  a  great 
advisory  body  to  Protestant  Christendom  in  America. 

The  Student  Volunteer  Movement  grew  out  of  intercessions 
on  the  part,  first,  of  a  small  group  of  individual  workers  and 
later  of  a  conference  assembled  at  Northfield,  Mass.,  in  1886. 
The  purpose  of  the  Movement  is  to  enlist  volunteers  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  In  the  pursuance  of  this  end  it 
has  shown  itself  to  be  one  of  the  truly  great  forces  of  evangeli- 
zation in  modern  Christian  life.  The  Movement  keeps  the  Mis- 
sion Boards  of  the  various  Churches  in  touch  with  such  of 
their  members  as  volunteer  for  special  service.  In  this  way 
a  thoroughly  committed  army  of  ready  workers  is  always  at 
hand. 

The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  had  something  of  a 
Southern  origin,  as  the  story  of  its  beginning  is  officially  re- 
corded. This  story  is  to  the  effect  that  when  the  Student  Vol- 
unteer Convention  met  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  February,  1906, 
a  layman  in  attendance  was  struck  with  the  possibilities  of  the 
idea  if  it  could  be  extended  to  the  laity  of  the  Church.  He 
said  within  himself :  "If  these  young  people  can  give  their  lives 
to  the  cause  of  God  in  the  mission  fields,  surely  the  laymen  of 
the  Churches  can  provide  the  money  to  send  them."  Sometime 
later,  in  a  prayer  meeting  held  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  New  York  City,  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 
was  organized  and  set  upon  its  career  of  almost  unexampled 
23 


^54 


History  oj  Methodism. 


usefulness.  It  has  a  strong  organization  and  at  the  present 
time  maintains  offices  in  several  of  the  larger  cities  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  In  cooperation  with  the  Laymen's 
Missionary  Movements  of  the  various  denominations,  great 
results  are  being  secured  by  the  Churches  in  enlisting  men  in 
the  work  of  world  evangelization. 

The  Missionary  Education  Movement  was  organized  in  1902, 
representatives  of  forty-seven  Mission  Boards  being  aligned  to- 
gether in  its  membership.  The  advantages  of  this  Movement 
are  obvious.  Through  it  a  unified  plan  of  missionary  educa- 
tion becomes  possible  in  all  denominations.  This  concert  of 
action  also  results  in  large  economy,  as  one  editorial  and  edu- 
cational department  accomplishes  the  work  of  forty-seven. 
Much  literature  is  issued  by  the  Board.  Mission  study  text- 
books and  other  material  are  made  readily  available  to  all  the 
Church  Boards.  Summer  conferences  are  conducted  at  strate- 
gic points  throughout  North  America.  The  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement  came  into  being  through  the  efforts  of  a  small 
group  of  men  meeting  for  mutual  counsel  first  in  New  York 
and  later  at  Silver  Bay,  on  Lake  George,  famous  as  a  resort  of 
the  intensive-minded. 

As  set  forth  in  the  constitution  of  the  Home  Mission  Coun- 
cil, the  purpose  of  the  organization  known  by  that  name  is  "to 
promote  fellowship,  conference,  and  cooperation  among  Chris- 
tian organizations  doing  missionary  work  in  the  United  States 
and  its  dependencies."  Any  missionary  organization  of  any 
religious  denomination  doing  work  of  general  scope  in  the 
territory  above  specified  may  become  a  member  of  this  Coun- 
cil by  application  to  and  approval  of  the  Executive  Committee. 
It  may  be  represented  in  the  Council  by  any  or  all  of  its  of- 
ficials or  members  of  its  official  Boards  whose  scope  of  respon- 
sibility is -coextensive  with  that  of  the  organization  they  rep- 
resent. 

The  Southern  center  of  these  potential  inter-Church  in- 
fluences, so  far  as  the  Methodism  of  the  section  is  concerned, 
is  Lake  Junaluska,  North  Carolina,  where,  partly  through  ac- 
tion of  some  of  the  official  Boards  of  the  Church  and  partly 
through  private  enterprise,  a  magnificent  residential  resort  has 
been  opened  up.    In  the  midst  of  the  transcendently  beautiful 


Junaluska — Educa  tional  Com  in  ission  355 


mountains  of  the  North  Carolina  range  and  beside  a  splendid 
lake  which  has  been  created  through  a  triumphant  feat  of  engi- 
neering, a  meeting  place  has  been  provided  for  the  summer  ses- 
sions of  the  Missionary,  Sunday  School,  Epworth  League,  and 
other  Boards  of  the  Church,  and  for  a  School  of  Theology.  A 
very  large  sum  of  money  has  been  expended  in  equipping  this 
ideal  resort,  and  every  year  adds  to  the  prospect  of  its  com- 
plete success. 

As  already  intimated,  the  Bishops'  Address  in  1010  reviewed 
the  whole  history  of  the  Vanderbilt  University  case,  and  the 
matter  of  dealing  with  the  final  aspects  of  the  same  was  com- 
mended to  the  Conference  for  action  through  its  regular  proc- 
esses of  reference  and  legislation. 

In  the  chapter  devoted  in  this  volume  to  the  legal  history  of 
the  Vanderbilt  case  we  have  anticipated  the  action  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1914  down  to  the  point  where  the  Educa- 
tional Commission  of  sixteen  members  was  ordered  to  be  ap- 
pointed. The  bishops,  responding  to  this  order  of  the  General 
Conference,  designated  the  following-named  as  members  of  the 
commission:  Bishop  W.  B.  Murrah,  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler, 
Bishop  James  H.  McCoy,  and  Bishop  John  C.  Kilgo;  Rev. 
Plato  Durham,  D.D.,  of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence; Rev.  Forrest  J.  Prettyman,  D.D.,  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference; Rev.  A.  J.  Lamar,  D.D.,  of  the  Alabama  Conference; 
Rev.  William  D.  Bradfield,  D.D.,  of  the  West  Texas  Confer- 
ence; Hon.  G.  T.  Pitzhugh,  Memphis,  Tenn. ;  Mr.  Asa  Candler, 
Atlanta,  Ga. ;  Hon.  W.  G.  M.  Thomas,  Chattanooga,  Tenn. ; 
Dr.  John  P.  Scott,  Shreveport,  La.;  Mr.  H.  D.  Fitzgerald,  Dan- 
ville, Va. ;  Judge  J.  E.  Cockrell,  Dallas,  Tex. ;  Mr.  T.  T.  Fish- 
burne,  Roanoke,  Va. ;  and  William  D.  Thompson,  Esq.,  At- 
lanta, Ga.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  commission,  according  to 
the  direction  of  the  General  Conference,  consists  of  four  bish- 
ops, four  ministers  other  than  bishops,  and  eight  laymen.  It 
was  resolved  by  the  Conference  that  this  commission,  being  ap- 
pointed, should  provide  at  the  earliest  possible  time  for  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  Biblical  school  for  the 
teaching  and  training  of  young  men  for  the  ministry.  The 
commission  was  also  directed  to  consider  the  advisability  of 
establishing  an  institution  or  institutions  of  the  grade  of  a 


History  of  Methodism. 


university,  to  be  maintained  by  the  Church.  This  direction  was 
defined  to  be  authority  on  the  part  of  the  commission  to  estab- 
lish and  provide  for  the  location,  maintenance,  and  endowment 
of  a  school  or  schools  of  theology  and  to  act  in  the  same  on 
behalf  of  the  General  Conference  as  fully  and  as  freely  as  the 
Conference  could  or  would  act  for  itself.  In  addition  to  the 
instructions  concerning  the  establishment  of  a  School  of  The- 
ology, the  commission  was  authorized  to  receive  bids,  dona- 
tions, and  gifts  for  the  establishment  of  the  two  universities 
concerning  which  the  Conference  had  previously  taken  action. 
In  pursuance  of  these  instructions,  the  commission  in  1014 
opened  the  Candler  School  of  Theology  in  the  Wesley  Memorial 
Building,  at  Atlanta,  and  made  provision  for  its  perpetual  con- 
tinuance. The  maintenance  of  this  school  was  provided  for  out 
of  the  munificent  gift  of  Mr.  Asa  Candler,  whose  donation  of  a 
million  dollars  was  one  of  the  earliest  prophecies  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Church's  new  program  of  education.  The  commis- 
sion further  recognized  the  foundation  of  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist University,  at  Dallas,  Tex.,  as  the  Church's  university 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  With  the  large  gift  of  Mr. 
Candler,  a  donation  of  half  a  million  dollars  from  the  city  of 
Atlanta,  the  tender  of  the  properties  of  the  Wesley  Memorial 
Hospital,  the  Atlanta  Medical  College,  and  the  magnificent 
foundation  and  equipment  of  Emory  College,  Oxford,  the  com- 
mission began  to  create  a  great  new  institution  at  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  to  be  known  as  Emory  University.  The  two  foundations 
of  Emory  and  of  Southern  Methodist  University  at  the  outset 
of  the  new  enterprise  aggregated  values  and  endowments  of 
only  a  little  less  than  six  millions  of  dollars,  a  sum  which 
represented  about  double  of  all  the  amount  involved  in  the 
property  of  Vanderbilt  University.  In  the  chapter  on  the  edu- 
cational institutions  of  the  Church  we  have  given  a  full  ac- 
count of  the  founding  of  these  two  institutions  and  of  the  his- 
tory of  their  antecedent  interests. 

When  the  Committee  on  Episcopacy  had  considered  the  ef- 
fectiveness of  the  members  of  the  episcopal  college  and  had 
fully  surveyed  the  needs  of  the  field,  it  was  decided  that  no 
strengthening  of  the  episcopal  force  was  required ;  and  al- 
though an  effort  was  made  by  individual  members  of  the  Con- 


The  Senior  Bishop. 


.°>57 


ference  to  secure  the  election  of  two  additional  bishops,  the 
proposition  was  voted  down  by  a  decisive  majority.  By  action 
of  the  committee,  Bishop  Alpheus  W.  Wilson  was  recommended 
to  be  retired,  and  the  Conference  was  asked  to  vote  by  ballot. 
It  was  the  judgment  of  the  body  that  Bishop  Wilson  retire.  No 
man  ever  had  a  stronger  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  Church 
than  Alpheus  W.  Wilson.  He  had  reached  the  venerable  age 
of  eighty  years;  and  although  possessing  still  a  measure  of 
strength  and  of  undoubted  mental  activity,  the  Church  felt  that 
he  was  entitled  to  be  relieved  of  official  duties.  As  a  preacher 
he  has  been  unequaled  in  his  generation.  Possessed  of  large 
culture,  profound  of  thought,  familiar  with  the  Scriptures  in 
the  tongues  of  their  original  writing,  deeply  read  in  religious 
and  theological  lore,  and  devout  and  blameless  in  life,  he  has 
been  masterful  since  the  time  of  his  showing  to  the  Church  in  a 
young  and  vigorous  manhood.  First  as  a  pastor  in  the  Balti- 
more Conference,  then  as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions, 
and  finally  for  many  years  as  a  bishop  in  the  Church,  he  has 
been  the  center  and  pillar  of  the  hope  of  his  people.  Unmoved 
and  unafraid,  he  has  gone  in  and  out  before  the  hosts  of  Israel ; 
and  unmoved  and  untroubled,  with  a  gentleness,  a  grace,  and  a 
dignity  which  have  challenged  all  love  and  admiration,  he  has 
gone  to  the  quietness  of  retirement  to  await  the  call  to  join  the 
spirits  of  the  archons  in  the  house  where  the  angels  see  the 
face  of  God. 

The  retirement  of  Bishop  Wilson  left  Bishop  Eugene  R.  Hen- 
drix  the  acting  senior  bishop  of  the  Church.  The  ability  of 
Bishop  Hendrix  as  a  preacher,  a  writer,  and  an  administrator 
in  the  episcopal  office  has  been  long  recognized.  As  President 
of  Central  College  he  became  well  known  to  the  Connection, 
especially  in  that  section  of  it  lying  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River;  but  in  1875,  as  the  traveling  companion  of  Bishop  Mar- 
vin on  his  missionary  tour  of  the  world,  his  name  became  fa- 
miliar to  the  Methodists  of  every  part  of  the  South.  In  1886 
he  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  with  the  beloved  and  lamented 
Charles  B.  Galloway.  Since  his  coming  into  the  episcopacy  he 
has  served  in  a  number  of  important  representative  relations 
in  the  Church.  At  one  time  he  was  President  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  and  was  also 


358 


History  of  McfJiodism. 


President  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  time  of  the  Church's  legal  contest 
with  the  majority  of  ils  members.  That  contest  furnished  an 
official  situation  which  the  Church,  as  a  whole,  has  found  it 
difficult  to  understand. 

The  Committee  on  Episcopacy  passed  strong  resolutions  in 
commendation  of  Bishop  Hoss's  attitude  and  labors  in  connec- 
tion with  the  defense  of  the  Vanderbilt  case,  expressed  a  tender 
and  affectionate  sympathy  with  him  in  the  physical  afflictions 
from  which  he  had  suffered,  and  recommended  that  the  College 
of  Bishops  so  arrange  their  plan  of  annual  visitation  as  to  give 
him  a  full  year  of  rest.  This  recommendation  was  indorsed 
by  the  General  Conference  and  favorably  acted  upon  by  the 
bishops. 

One  of  the  early  acts  of  the  Conference  was  to  indorse  the 
Hobson  amendment  to  a  general  bill  in  Congress  providing  for 
a  vote  on  the  national  prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  intoxicating  liquor.  "Our  people  were  long  since  wearied,'' 
said  the  resolution,  "of  the  monster  evil  of  the  liquor  traffic 
and  are  now  praying  for  its  extirpation."  A  copy  of  the  reso 
lution  was  ordered  to  be  sent  to  Captain  Hobson.  In  the  line 
of  the  larger  civic  and  patriotic  concern  of  the  Church  a  reso- 
lution was  introduced  and  adopted  asking  for  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  chaplains  in  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States.  This  resolution  recited  the  fact  that  in  the  navy  there 
are  only  twenty-one  chaplains  and  in  the  army  sixty-seven. 
The  attention  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  there 
fore  directed  to  the  urgent  need  of  providing  more  generally 
for  the  spiritual  wants  of  sailors  and  soldiers.  Coincident 
with  the  actions  noted  above,  the  Conference  went  on  record 
as  indorsing  the  action  of  Hon.  Josephus  Daniels,  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  in  ordering  the  discontinuance  of  the  officers'  wine 
mess  on  naval  ships  of  the  United  States  government  and  oth- 
erwise completing  the  banishment  of  alcoholic  drink  from  the 
vessels,  yards,  and  barracks  of  the  navy,  as  indicating  not  only 
new  and  higher  ideals  for  the  government,  but  as  a  guarantee  of 
efficiency  and  discipline  in  the  navy.  Tt  is  pleasant  in  this 
place  to  note  the  fact  that  Mr.  Daniels  is  an  active  and  repre- 
sentative layman  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


Mexico — Panama  Exposition — Lay  Leaders.  :;r>!) 


At  the  time  of  the  sitting  of  the  Conference  the  political 
situation  in  Mexico  had  reached  a  point  of  extreme  gravity. 
In  view  of  this  fact  the  Conference  was  called  to  a  season  of 
special  prayers,  asking  the  guidance  of  Heaven  for  the  diplo- 
mats of  our  own  country  and  Mexico  in  reaching  a  peaceable 
settlement  of  national  and  international  difficulties.  At  this 
time  a  telegram  was  read  from  the  missionaries  in  Mexico  an- 
nouncing that  all  were  well  and  were  on  the  way  to  Vera  Cruz. 
But  the  concern  of  the  Church  was  not  for  the  American  mis- 
sionaries only,  but  for  the  native  members  and  preachers  of  its 
mission  in  that  country.  The  Conference,  therefore,  declared 
that  "our  Mexican  brethren,  preachers  and  people,  are  as  dear 
to  our  hearts  as  they  have  ever  been,  and  they  have  our  deepest 
Christian  love  and  are  the  subject  of  our  daily  prayers  for  their 
personal  safety  and  welfare."  The  following  telegram  was  sent 
to  Rev.  A.  Portugal,  the  Church's  representative  in  Mexico: 
"The  General  Conference  profoundly  sympathizes  with  Mexico 
in  her  troubles  and  offers  special  prayers  for  her  peace.  We 
deeply  appreciate  the  faithfulness  of  our  Mexican  brethren." 

The  Panama  Exposition,  commemorating  the  completion  of 
the  stupendous  work  of  digging  and  equipping  the  Panama 
Canal,  was  soon  to  be  opened  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco.  It 
was  an  occasion  not  to  be  overlooked  by  the  Conference,  both 
on  account  of  its  intrinsic  significance  and  the  opportunities 
which  it  offered  for  a  presentation  of  the  causes  of  missions 
and  evangelization.  It  was,  therefore,  recommended  that  a 
propaganda  of  Christian  evangelism  of  commanding  propor- 
tions be  maintained  in  San  Francisco  during  the  entire  time 
of  the  Exposition,  and  that  the  bishops  be  directed  to  appoint 
three  representatives  of  the  Church  on  the  Pacific  Coast  to  as- 
sist in  the  prosecution  of  this  plan. 

Strong  petitions  and  requests  from  the  laymen's  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  asking  that  lay  leaders  of  the  Annual  and 
District  Conferences  be  made  members  of  the  Annual  Confer- 
ence were  duly  considered,  and  steps  were  taken  to  provide 
for  such  membership  in  the  organization  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences. The  proposition  was  sent  to  the  Annual  Conferences 
for  concurrent  action. 

P>ishop  Murrah  made  report  of  his  official  visit  to  the  Con- 


3G0 


History  of  Methodism. 


ference  of  the  Japan  Methodist  Church  which  had  been  held 
in  the  city  of  Tokyo  in  October,  1911.  An  incident  in  line  with 
the  interest  of  this  report  was  an  address  by  Prof.  T.  C.  Chao, 
of  the  China  Mission  Conference,  who  gave  a  native's  view  of 
the  spiritual  and  intellectual  needs  of  China.  Rev.  Yoshikuni 
Yoshioka,  D.D.,  also  spoke  officially  for  the  Japanese  General 
Conference,  having  been  accredited  by  that  body  as  a  fraternal 
delegate.  As  a  part  of  the  general  missionary  program  it  is  to 
be  noted  here  that  the  Publishing  Agents  and  the  Book  Editor 
were  authorized  to  bring  out  a  Spanish  translation  of  the  forth- 
coming Book  of  Discipline.  Action  was  also  taken  looking  to 
the  forming  of  a  Texas  Mexican  Mission,  the  creation  of  a  mis- 
sion out  of  territory  west  of  the  Sierra  Madre  Mountains  in 
Mexico  and  of  Mexican  work  in  California  and  Arizona.  It 
was  further  resolved  to  create  two  Annual  Conferences  in 
Mexico,  the  Mexican  Border  and  the  Central  Mexico  Confer- 
ences. The  proposition  to  erect  an  Indian  Mission  Conference 
in  Oklahoma  failed  of  favorable  consideration.  After  the  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Conference  of  1014,  the  officials  of  the 
Mission  Board  entered  into  elaborate  negotiations  with  the 
Mission  Boards  of  other  Churches  for  the  exchange  of  various 
territorial  fields,  or  missionary  spheres,  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico.  This  involved  the  exchange  not  only  of  fields  of  work, 
but  also  of  schools,  churches,  and  other  equipment.  The  plan 
was  on  the  point  of  consummation,  but  met  with  such  pro- 
nounced opposition  from  a  number  of  missionaries,  as  also 
from  a  majority  of  the  bishops  and  other  Church  leaders,  thai 
its  final  consideration  was  indefinitely  deferred. 

Further  emendation  of  the  plan  and  constitution  of  the  Coin 
mittee  on  Appeals,  an  established  court  of  the  Chnrch,  w  as  re- 
ported from  the  Committee  on  Itinerancy,  and  the  amendments 
were  indorsed  by  the  Conference.  This  court  was  constituted 
for  hearing  appeals  of  traveling  preachers  who  have  been  tried 
by  the  Annual  Conferences  and  against  whom  penalties  have 
been  assessed.  Formerly  such  appeals  had  to  wait  until  the 
sessions  of  the  general  body;  but  the  Committee  on  Appeals, 
meeting  ad  interim  at  the  Publishing  House  in  Nashville,  gives 
timely  and  often  urgent  attention  to  these  cases.  The  ques- 
tion of  laity  rights,  which  had  engaged  much  of  the  time  of  the 


Laity  Rights — Episcopacy — Evangelism.  361 


General  Conference  of  1910,  was  again  up  with  renewed  em- 
phasis and  insistency.  Time  was  given  for  a  full  presentation 
of  the  request  by  representative  women  of  the  Church ;  but 
after  hearing  the  representations  and  arguments  of  the  advo- 
cates of  laity  rights,  the  Conference  rejected  the  measure  by  a 
vote  of  105  to  171.  It  may  be  noted,  however,  that,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  movement  to  restore  the  ancient  order  of  deaconess, 
the  cause  of  female  representation  has  shown  a  steady  growth 
in  securing  committals  amongst  the  legislators  of  the  Church. 

The  perennial  questions  of  a  limited  episcopacy  and  an 
elective  presiding  eldership,  with  various  other  suggestions 
touching  the  appointment  to  pastoral  service,  were  represented 
in  memorials,  petitions,  and  resolutions,  and  not  a  few  of  them 
found  place  on  the  calendar;  but  none  developed  a  noteworthy 
interest  in  the  process  of  legislation.  It  was  provided  that 
ministers  coming  from  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  shall 
be  received  on  the  same  basis  as  those  coming  from  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  and 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  of  England. 

Evangelism,  both  as  a  concrete  and  an  abstract  proposition 
of  gospel  advance,  has  had  much  consideration  in  recent  Gener- 
al Conferences  of  the  Church.  Evangelistic  movements,  aside 
from  the  itinerant  pastorate,  were  at  one  time  much  discounted 
in  the  sentiment  of  Methodism ;  but  in  recent  years  the  Church 
has  sought  to  draw  to  itself  and  to  put  under  direction  the 
spontaneous  emergence  and  activities  of  an  evangelistic  order. 
Evangelists  have  thus  been  recognized  and  the  direction  of 
their  ministry  given  to  the  Home  Department  of  the  Board  of 
Missions.  At  the  session  of  1914  a  committee  on  evangelism 
was  appointed  to  consider  the  whole  question  and  to  recom- 
mend such  action  as  will  promote  a  great  revival  of  religion 
throughout  the  Church. 

The  constitution  of  the  Board  of  Education  provides  for  a 
commission  of  practical  educators,  whose  duties  are  to  classify 
the  educational  institutions  of  the  Church  and  otherwise  fix 
the  scholastic  standards  of  the  same.  The  College  of  Bishops 
announced  as  the  members  of  this  commission  John  O.  Will- 
son,  K.  S.  Hyer,  F.  N.  Parker,  J.  H.  Reynolds,  J.  J.  Tigert,  B. 
E.  Blackwell,  C.  B.  Jenkins,  J.  D.  Simpson,  Paul  H.  Linn, 


3G2 


History  of  Methodism. 


and  W.  P.  Few.  Another  commission  of  importance  established 
at  this  time  was  that  known  as  the  Commission  on  Charters. 
Its  business  is  to  investigate  the  charters  of  all  the  general 
Boards  and  other  conneetional  agencies  and  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  securing  a  charter  for  the  general  Church. 
When  this  commission  shall  find  that  any  holdings  of  the 
Church  are  not  properly  chartered,  it  shall  take  steps  to  put 
the  ownership  and  control  of  the  same  under  unquestioned 
titles  of  the  Church.  It  is  confidently  expected  that  the  sad 
and  oftentimes  deplorable  lapses  of  Methodist  titles  in  the  past 
is  a  record  not  likely  to  be  repeated.  The  Commission  on 
Charters  was  by  this  session  of  the  General  Conference  au- 
thorized to  consider  the  desirability  of  a  relocation  of  the  cen- 
tral Publishing  House  of  the  Church,  now  located  in  Nashville, 
Tenn. ;  but  before  any  removal  of  the  publishing  interests  can 
be  effected,  the  question  will  have  to  be  referred  to  the  Annual 
Conferences  for  a  vote  of  indorsement. 

During  the  session  of  the  Conference  a  spirited  discussion 
arose  over  a  proposition  to  change  the  text  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed  so  as  to  read  ''the  Church  of  God,"  instead  of  "the 
holy  catholic  Church."  At  one  time,  very  early  in  the  history 
of  the  Southern  Connection,  this  reading  obtained  in  the  text 
of  the  Creed  as  used  in  the  services  of  the  Church;  but  the 
original  reading  was  formally  restored  at  a  later  date,  and 
most  fully  so  by  the  adoption  of  the  new  Order  of  Worship. 
Many  sensitive  minds,  however,  have  taken  offense  at  the  use 
of  the  word  "catholic,"  contending  that  amongst  the  unlearned 
and  ill-informed  the  term  suggests  the  primacy  of  Romanism. 
These  views  were  fully  brought  before  the  Conference,  but  on 
a  final  vote  the  proposition  to  revise  the  reading  was  lost  by  a 
clerical  vote  of  87  to  74  and  a  lay  vote  of  50  to  86,  a  difference 
of  only  fourteen  for  the  nonrevisionists.  The  Conference,  how 
ever,  on  another  question  of  revision  decided  for  the  revision- 
ists. The  word  "man"  in  the  marriage  ceremony  was  substi- 
tuted by  the  word  "husband,"  so  that  in  declaring  the  marriage 
bond  the  minister  must  say  "husband  and  wife"  instead  of 
the  old  form  of  "man  and  wife."  Such  is  the  finesse  of  a 
modern  sentiment  al  ism. 

Various  changes  were  made  in  the  bounds  of  the  Annual 


New  Conference — Ecumenical — Elections.  :;(;:; 


Conferences.  The  Arkansas  and  the  White  River  Conferences 
were  consolidated  into  a  single  body,  to  be  known  as  the  North 
Arkansas  Conference.  The  South  Carolina  Conference  was  di- 
vided into  two  bodies,  known  as  the  South  Carolina  and  the 
Upper  South  Carolina  Conferences.  A  commission  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  and  make  certain  changes  in  the  boundary 
between  the  Western  Virginia  and  the  Kentucky  Conferences. 
Certain  adjustments  of  boundaries  were  also  ordered  to  be 
made  in  the  Conferences  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  as  also  in  Il- 
linois and  Indiana. 

The  approaching  session  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  to 
be  held  in  London  in  1921,  was  anticipated  in  the  creation 
of  an  Ecumenical  Commission  to  serve  in  the  intervals  of  the 
decennial  meetings,  the  bishops  to  appoint  the  ten  members 
provided  for  in  the  adopted  resolutions. 

The  connectional  elections  which  were  had  at  this  session 
of  the  Conference  resulted  as  follows:  Publishing  Agents,  D. 
M.  Smith  and  A.  J.  Lamar;  Book  Editor  and  Editor  Methodist 
Revieic,  Gross  Alexander;  Editor  Christian  Advocate,  Thomas 
N.  Ivey ;  Editor  Sunday  School  Literature,  Edwin  B.  Chappell ; 
Secretary  Board  of  Missions,  W.  W.  Finson ;  Secretary  Board 
of  Education,  Stonewall  Anderson ;  Secretary  Board  of  Church 
Extension,  W.  F.  McMurry;  Secretary  Epworth  League  and 
Editor  Epworth  Era,  F.  S.  Parker.  W.  E.  Vaughan  was  by 
the  Book  Committee  reelected  to  the  editorship^of  the  Pacific 
Methodist  Advocate. 

The  usual  fraternal  exchanges  of  the  General  Conference 
marked  the  days  of  exceptional  interest  at  the  session  of  1914. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  William  Bradfield  was  fraternal  messenger  from 
the  British  Wesley  an  Conference.  In  view  of  the  bitter  ordeal 
of  war  and  the  clash  of  international  forces  which  England 
was  soon  called  to  face,  this  passage  from  the  address  of  Dr. 
Bradfield  had  a  suggestion  of  contrast  and  of  the  veiled  limi- 
tations of  human  foresight  interesting  to  contemplate : 

I  speak  for  rural  England,  with  her  lanes  at  this  very  time  white 
with  the  May  blossoms  and  her  broad  meadows  gay  with  the  buttercups, 
the  cowslips,  and  the  daisies;  for  the  folk  of  the  Yorkshire  dales  and 
the  broad  cornfields  of  Lincoln  and  the  downs  of  the  South;  for  the 
West  country,  home  of  Drake  and  Hawkins  and  the  pioneers  of  Eliza- 


364 


History  of  Methodism. 


beth's  reign;  for  Cornwall,  where  John  Wesley,  by  God's  abounding 
mercy,  redeemed  out  of  a  darkness  in  which  no  man  cared  for  their 
souls  a  people  for  God's  own  possession.  My  greetings  come  from 
"gallant  little  Wales,"  from  Scotland,  the 

"Land  of  brown  heath  and  shaggy  wood, 
Land  of  the  mountain  and  the  flood"; 

and  from  Erin's  green  isle,  where  pathos  and  laughter,  poverty  and  joy, 
heartbreaks  and  inextinguishable  hope  stand  now  as  ever,  side  by  side, 
or  rather  are  inextricably  mixed  up  with  each  other. 

The  Canadian  Methodist  Church  was  represented  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Samuel  P.  Kose.  A  notable  passage  in  his  address  declared 
that  lie  represented  a  Methodism  which  believes  in  the  sacred - 
ness  of  the  call  to  preach  and  exercise  of  the  gospel  of  social 
and  national  redemption ;  that  believes  this  call  can  be  obeyed 
only  in  the  spirit  of  full  dedication.  Dr.  Kose  was  accompanied 
by  Mr.  G.  F.  Johnson,  a  layman  of  the  Canadian  Church,  whose 
address  moved  upon  a  high  plane  of  fraternal  sentiment  and 
wide-visioned  faith  in  the  accomplishments  of  the  gospel.  He 
held  that  the  development  for  unity  amongst  the  Churches  of 
Canada  and  the  remarkable  record  made  by  Methodism  in  im- 
pressing the  life  of  the  Dominion  are  but  an  epitome  of  a  wider 
world  movement.  Wherever  the  doctrines  and  practices  of 
Methodism  have  penetrated  they  have  wrought  for  the  uplift 
and  emancipation  of  the  human  race,  the  establishment  of  rep- 
resentative institutions,  universal  education,  and  stable  gov- 
ernment. 

The  Rev.  Matthew  S.  Hughes,  1 ).!).,  LL.D.,  who  two  years 
later,  at  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy,  represented  that  body  in  a  message  full  of 
the  buoyancy  of  hope  for  the  future  of  the  Methodist  spirit, 
strong  with  evangelical  utterances,  and  eloquent  in  its  every 
echo.   In  closing  his  address  Dr.  Hughes  said  : 

If  I  were  to  gather  up  in  one  sentence  that  which  is  in  my  mind  and 
heart,  it  would  be  these  immortal  words,  dear  to  all  Methodist  hearts: 
"The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us."  Men  have  played  the  prophet  with 
Methodism.  They  have  proclaimed  it  to  be  a  self-limited  movement. 
They  have  described  it  as  a  tidal  wave  of  religious  feeling.  They  have 
predicted  its  rapid  decadence  and  its  final  disappearance.    They  have 


Fraternal  Addresses — Death  Roll. 


365 


set  Its  metes  and  bounds  In  history.  They  have  appointed  the  time  of 
its  departure.  But  when  we  stand  upon  the  apex  of  time  and  mark 
the  living  millions  to  which  it  ministers  in  holy  things,  when  we  find  it 
well  along  into  the  third  century  in  which  it  has  played  a  part,  with 
the  dew  of  youth  still  on  its  brow  and  its  spiritual  forces  unabated,  we 
are  constrained  to  say  with  holy  awe:  "God  is  with  us." 

In  addition  to  these  messages  of  greeting,  there  were  fra- 
ternal addresses  from  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
from  the  Church  of  Japan,  from  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches,  and  from  the  representative  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  I.  Haven.  The  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australasia  had  sent  formal 
greetings  to  the  Church  in  the  South  and  requested  the  pres- 
ence of  a  delegate  from  that  Church  on  the  occasion  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  centenary  of  Methodism  in  the  Antipodes  to  fall 
in  August,  1915.  The  Conference  responded  cordially  to  this 
message,  and  the  bishops  appointed  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss  to  serve 
on  that  auspicious  occasion,  a  reference  to  whose  visit  has  been 
made  in  a  former  chapter. 

For  the  years  1914-15  the  death  rolls  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences exhibit  the  names  of  a  number  of  well-known  min- 
isters. The  Rev.  John  Adams,  D.D.,  who  died  in  Tyler,  Tex., 
June  3,  1914,  was  a  man  of  unusual  intellectual  power,  pro- 
foundly read  in  the  Scriptures,  a  good  Greek  scholar,  and  of 
saintly  spirit,  who  left  behind  him  a  record  of  long  and  faith- 
ful service  in  the  ministry.  He  was  a  native  of  New  Jersey, 
having  been  born  in  the  city  of  Patterson  May  7,  1830.  The 
Rev.  John  Hamilton  Brunner,  D.D.,  was  long  and  favorably 
known  as  a  Methodist  educator,  having  served  many  years  as 
the  President  of  Hiwassee  College,  in  the  bounds  of  the  Holston 
Conference.  Dr.  Brunner  was  a  scholar  of  the  classic  type, 
saturated  with  literature  and  history,  a  preacher  whose  style 
was  terse  and  sententious,  but  whose  arguments  were  lucid 
and  convincing.  He  died  February  18,  1914,  lacking  but  little 
more  than  a  year  of  being  ninety  years  of  age. 

Charles  E.  Dowman,  D.D.,  another  Methodist  educator  and 
well  known  also  as  a  pastor,  having  filled  a  number  of  impor- 
tant pulpits,  died  during  the  session  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1914.   One  of  the  many  contributions  to  the  ministry  of  the 


History  of  Methodism. 


Southern  Church  from  the  motherland  of  England,  having  been 
born  in  the  County  of  Kent  August  28,  1849,  he  became  a  real 
American,  blending  the  sturdy  instincts  of  his  native  land  with 
the  broad-visioned  temperament  of  a  true  citizen  of  the  New 
World.  Prom  1S98  to  1902  he  was  President  of  Emory  College. 
When  in  1911  a  theological  chair  was  established  in  Emory 
College,  he  was  called  from  the  pastorate  to  fill  it.  He  was 
serving  in  this  post  with  accustomed  faithfulness  and  great 
acceptability  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Isaac  Stiles  Hopkins,  D.D.,  was  a  fine  figure  and  a  com- 
manding spirit  amongst  the  men  of  his  generation.  Christian, 
preacher,  scholar,  gentleman  are  terms  descriptive  of  the  ex- 
perience, attainments,  and  qualities  which  made  up  in  him  a 
great  personality.  His  life  work  was  half  divided  between  the 
pulpit  and  the  office  of  teacher.  The  Georgia  School  of  Tech- 
nology was  largely  the  result  of  his  prevision  and  wise  plan- 
ning, and  to  it  he  gave  some  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  as  a 
worker  and  teacher.  His  name  stands  upon  the  honor  list 
of  those  who  were  Presidents  of  Emory  College  before  the 
merger  which  made  it  a  part  of  the  Emory  University.  Dr. 
Hopkins  was  born  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  June  20,  1841,  and  died  in 
Atlanta  February  3,  1914. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  held  at  Asheville, 
N.  ft,  in  May,  1910,  George  H.  Detwiler,  D.D.,  a  native  of  Find 
lay,  Ohio,  was  pastor  of  the  local  Church  and  the  host  of  the 
General  Conference.  He  was  thus  brought  prominently  before 
the  delegations  and  greatly  impressed  the  whole  body  by  his 
happy  address  of  welcome  as  well  as  in  other  offices  of  courtesy. 
Subsequently  he  was  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Conference 
and  stationed  at  the  West  End  Chnrch,  Nashville.  During  the 
next  few  years  he  became  known  as  one  of  the  strongest  preach- 
ers and  most  successful  pastors  in  the  Connection.  A  tuber- 
cular trouble,  which  developed  rapidly,  soon  undermined  his 
strength  and  curtailed  his  distinguished  labors,  his  death  oc- 
curring July  5,  1914. 

As  manager  of  the  book  depository  of  the  Church  at  New 
Orleans  during  the  trying  experience  of  the  Publishing  House 
in  the  years  following  the  War  between  the  States,  Rev.  Robert, 
J.  Harp,  D.D.,  became  one  of  the  best-known  ministers  of  the 


Death  of  Dr.  Alexander. 


Church.  Though  never  self-assertive,  his  taleuts  were  of  a  high 
order,  and  his  life  was  described  by  one  who  knew  him  well  as 
"an  assurance  of  immortality."  A  tireless,  restless  spirit,  he 
wrought  in  the  work  assigned  him  or  in  that  line  nearest  at 
hand  to  the  close  of  a  life  of  eighty-five  years.  He  died  in 
Shreveport,  La.,  July  24,  1914. 

The  month  of  September,  1915,  brought  to  the  Church  an 
all  but  irreparable  loss.  On  the  sixth  day  of  that  month  died 
Gross  Alexander,  A.B.,  D.D.,  S.T.D.,  Book  Editor  and  Editor 
of  the  Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  Gross  Alexander,  the  son 
of  Dr.  Charles  H.  Alexander,  was  born  in  Allen  County,  Ky., 
June  1,  1852.  Though  the  family  was  not  possessed  of  large 
means,  he  was  kept  in  the  best  country  schools  until  the  re- 
moval of  his  father  to  Louisville,  where,  while  still  a  youth, 
he  began  to  enjoy  superior  educational  advantages.  Hav- 
ing had  from  childhood  a  vital  religious  experience,  he  early 
dedicated  his  future  years  and  strength  to  the  work  of  the 
Christian  ministry.  Accordingly,  in  1875  he  entered  Drew 
Theological  Seminary  in  order  to  prepare  himself  for  his  chosen 
labor.  Prom  this  institution  he  graduated  in  1877  and  in  the 
same  year  applied  for  admission  into  the  Louisville  Confer- 
ence. In  the  class  for  admission  that  year  were  John  J.  Tigert, 
afterwards  bishop,  and  Robert  W.  Browder.  Dr.  Alexander's 
first  appointment  was  at  Portland,  where  he  spent  three  years, 
during  which  time  the  famous  Steve  P.  Holcombe  was  convert- 
ed under  his  ministry  and  by  himself  led  to  enter  upon  a  ca- 
reer of  soul-saving  much  resembling  that  of  the  famous  Jere 
McAuley,  of  New  York.  The  next  few  years  were  spent  in  pas- 
torates about  Louisville,  during  which  time  he  had  the  as- 
sistance of  Dr.  Broadus,  the  distinguished  head  of  the  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary  in  that  city,  in  reviewing  his  studies  in 
New  Testament  Greek,  a  pursuit  to  which  he  had  given  himself 
with  great  assiduity.  From  1884  to  1886  he  was  pastor  of  the 
West  End  Church  in  Nashville,  having  been  specially  solicited 
by  Bishop  McTyeire  to  take  that  post.  At  the  end  of  this  term 
he  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  New  Testament  Exegesis  in 
Vanderbilt  University,  when  his  great  career  as  a  teacher  be- 
gan. In  1902  he  returned  to  the  pastorate,  being  made  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Louisville  District.   On  the  election  of  Dr. 


368 


History  of  Methodism. 


Tigert  to  the  episcopacy,  iu  1006,  he  succeeded  to  the  office  of 
Book  Editor  and  Editor  of  the  Methodist  Review,  which  posi- 
tion he  continued  to  occupy  until  his  death.  As  editor  of  the 
Methodist  Review  Dr.  Alexander  achieved  an  international  rep- 
utation. "He  was  progressive  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
but  likewise  conservative  in  his  hold  upon  things  fundamen- 
tal." He  kept  in  sympathetic  touch  with  the  intellectual  move- 
ments of  the  world  and  displayed  great  skill  in  selecting  the 
work  of  the  best  writers  for  the  pages  of  his  publication.  He 
was  a  faithful  friend,  and  all  who  knew  him  were  assured  of 
the  genuineness  of  his  spiritual  experience  and  the  pure  mo- 
tives of  his  life  and  conduct.  As  an  author  Dr.  Alexander's 
work  will  probably  remain  longer  than  that  of  any  other  man 
of  his  fellowship.  He  contributed  articles  to  the  Schaff-Herzog 
Encyclopedia.  To  a  popular  New  Testament  series  he  contrib- 
uted commentaries  on  "Ephesians"  and  "Colossians."  In  1910 
he  was  selected  to  be  a  member  of  the  committee  to  revise  the 
King  James  Version  of  the  Bible  for  a  Tercentenary  Edition  in 
1911.  "The  Son  of  Man,"  "History  of  Methodism,"  and  "The 
Life  of  Steve  P.  Holcombe"  were  volumes  from  his  pen  which 
had  a  wide  reading.  The  issues  of  the  Methodist  Review  under 
his  editorship  will  themselves  constitute  a  series  of  volumes  to 
be  valued  for  their  intrinsic  worth  and  also  as  a  certain  mark 
of  the  literary  and  intellectual  advancement  of  the  Church  in 
the  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century. 

The  Book  Committee,  in  session  in  October,  1915,  elected  H. 
M.  Du  Bose,  a  member  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference,  to  be 
Dr.  Alexander's  successor. 

If  the  general  editorial  and  literary  interests  of  the  Church 
were  made  conscious  of  a  great  loss  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Alexan- 
der, the  vast  and  important  Sunday  school  concern  of  the  Con- 
nection suffered  in  an  equal  way  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Howard 
M.  Hamill,  the  head  of  the  teacher-training  of  that  depart- 
ment and  the  author  of  a  line  of  Sunday  school  books  of  un- 
paralleled excellence.  Dr.  Hamill  was  born  in  Lowndesboro, 
Ala.,  August  10,  1847,  and  was  well  educated,  having  graduat- 
ed from  the  Polytechnic  Institute  of  Alabama.  In  1864  he  be- 
came a  soldier  in  the  Confederate  army,  serving  under  that  im- 


If.  M.  Hamill— C.  F.  Reid—W.  F.  Lloyd.  369 


mortal  man,  Robert  E.  Lee,  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 
Although  residing  out  of  the  South  for  a  number  of  years  after 
the  war,  Dr.  Hamill  never  lost  his  sense  of  identification  with 
the  section  of  his  birth  nor  his  passionate  love  for  its  ideals. 
In  1889  he  accepted  the  position  of  Superintendent  of  Normal 
Work  in  the  Illinois  State  Sunday  School  Association.  Later 
he  was  made  Field  Secretary  of  the  International  Sunday 
School  Work  and  in  this  position  remained  until  he  was  called 
to  take  charge  of  the  Department  of  Teacher-Training  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  The  work  done  in  this 
capacity  was  of  immeasurable  value  to  the  Church.  His  death 
occurred  January  21,  1915. 

Rev.  Clarence  F.  Reid,  D.D.,  was  one  of  a  trio  of  remarkably 
useful  and  distinguished  men,  of  which  Drs.  xVlexander  and 
Hamill  are  the  remaining  members,  who  died  following  the  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Conference  of  1914.  Dr.  Reid  was  Secre- 
tary of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  at  the  time  of  his 
death  and  had  shown  great  aptitude  for  the  same,  his  visita- 
tions and  addresses  having  deeply  stirred  the  hearts  of  the 
laity  from  ocean  to  ocean.  But  his  most  distinguished  service 
was  given  to  the  mission  field.  In  1878,  just  as  he  began  to  be 
about  thirty  years  of  age,  he  went  as  a  missionary  to  China 
and  there  entered  upon  a  career  of  sustained  usefulness.  In 
1896  he  became  Superintendent  of  the  Korea  Mission,  where 
he  served  until  1902,  when  he  was  given  charge  of  the  Oriental 
mission  work  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  from  which  work  he  passed 
into  the  secretaryship  of  the  Laymen's  Movement.  Dr.  Reid  was 
twice  President  of  the  China  Mission  Conference,  several  times 
he  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference,  and  was  an  in- 
fluential member  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference  of  1831.  Dr. 
Reid  was  one  of  many  men  given  to  the  ministry  of  the  South 
from  the  land  of  the  North.  He  was  born  in  Chenango  County, 
New  York,  July  19,  1849,  and  died  in  Kentucky  October  7,  1915. 

During  this  period  there  passed  away  a  number  of  other 
well-known  ministers  of  the  Connection  whose  spheres  of  ac- 
tivity, while  not  so  wide  as  those  of  the  distinguished  men 
whose  names  appear  in  the  foregoing  list,  were  yet  before  the 
Church  in  abundant  and  acceptable  labors.  Amongst  these 
were:  William  F.  Lloyd,  a  member  of  the  Central  Texas  Con- 
24 


370 


If  i  s  i  o )  7/  of  Me  tlx  o  dism. 


ference;  John  B.  Robins  and  William  I*.  Lovejoy,  of  the  North 
Georgia  Conference;  Richard  D.  Smart,  of  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference; W.  A.  Hanna,  of  the  Missouri  Conference;  R.  S. 
Clark,  of  the  Montana  Conference;  Tobias  P.  Cobb,  of  the 
Southwest  Missouri  Conference;  Samuel  C.  Littlepage,  of  the 
Central  Texas  Conference ;  E.  H.  Pearce,  of  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference; and  John  T.  Wightman,  of  the  Baltimore  Conference. 

In  addition  to  the  sad  losses  in  the  ranks  of  its  ministry, 
the  Church  mourned  the  death,  on  June  25,  1016,  of  Maj.  Reu- 
ben W.  Millsaps,  the  founder  of  Millsaps  College,  a  man  who 
had  made  a  long  record  of  usefulness  and  loyalty  as  a  layman. 
Major  Millsaps  was  born  in  Copiah  County,  Miss.,  May  30, 1833. 
He  was  educated  at  Hanover  College,  Indiana,  and  at  Asbury 
(now  De  Pauw)  University.  In  1858  he  received  the  degree  of 
LL.B.  from  Harvard  University.  For  a  while  in  his  early  man- 
hood he  was  engaged  in  the  mercantile  business  in  Mississippi. 
Prom  the  first  he  began  to  be  prosperous  and  in  the  end  ac- 
cumulated a  fortune  which  was  considered  very  large  for  the 
section  in  which  he  lived.  He  made  possible  the  founding  of 
Millsaps  College  by  his  initial  gift  of  $50,000.  To  this  gift 
various  sums  have  been  added  until  the  whole  reaches  a  total  of 
not  much  short  of  one  million  dollars.  Major  Millsaps  was  a 
member  of  a  number  of  General  Conferences.  Quiet  and  un- 
assuming in  manner,  courteous  but  firm  and  steadfast  in  con- 
viction, genuinely  religious  and  constant  in  service,  he  gave 
to  the  Church  the  memory  of  a  life  which  is  worthy  of  honor. 

The  General  Conferences  of  the  Church,  South,  and  of  the 
Canadian  Methodist  Church  fall  in  the  same  year,  the  one 
meeting  in  the  latter  spring  and  the  other  in  the  latter  sum- 
mer. The  Canadian  General  Conference  for  this  year  sal  in 
Ottawa,  the  capital  of  the  British  dominions  in  North  America. 
At  first  it  was  thought  that  the  session  of  the  Conference  would 
have  to  be  postponed  on  account  of  the  disturbed  condition  of 
the  country  incident  to  the  European  war.  Troops  were  mus- 
tering and  drilling  in  the  capital  city,  and  the  whole  land  was 
filled  with  intense  and  tragical  excitement.  Bnt  the  leaders 
became  fully  possessed  with  the  idea  that,  no  matter  what  the 
happenings  of  the  world  outside,  the  program  of  the  Chnrch 
should  be  carried  out  without  hesitation  or  fear:  and  so  that 


Canadian  Methodism — Dr.  A  ins  worth. 


371 


Conference  went  forward  with  its  work.  The  meeting  of  the 
Conference  at  the  seat  of  government  naturally  attracted  of- 
ficial attention,  and  the  Governor-General  and  the  Premier  of 
the  Dominion  were  represented  in  public  addresses  of  welcome 
and  in  other  functions  of  recognition.  A  distressing  feature  of 
the  session  was  the  absence  of  the  fraternal  delegate  from  the 
British  Wesleyan  Church,  the  Rev.  W.  Hodson  Smith,  who  was 
prevented  from  attending  by  the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
British  nation  and  the  perils  of  ocean  travel. 

Dr.  Albert  Carman,  long  the  senior  General  Superintendent 
of  the  Church,  presided  at  some  of  the  opening  sessions,  but 
was  by  the  Conference  honorably  retired  to  the  position  of  Su- 
perintendent Emeritus.  His  retirement  left  Dr.  S.  D.  Chown, 
his  colleague  in  office,  as  the  sole  effective  Superintendent  of  the 
Church.  Dr.  Chown's  diocese  includes  the  entire  Dominion 
of  Canada,  the  colony  of  Newfoundland,  and  the  Bermuda  Is- 
lands. 

The  statistics  of  Canadian  Methodism  reported  at  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1914  were  as  follows :  Membership,  368,992, 
an  increase  of  over  ten  thousand  for  the  year  1913-14  and  of 
nearly  twenty-nine  thousand  for  the  quadrennium.  The  Church 
had  2,845  ministers,  an  increase  for  the  quadrennium  of  265. 
For  all  purposes  it  had  raised  during  the  four  years  over 
twenty-two  million  dollars.  Its  church  and  parsonage  prop- 
erty was  valued  at  thirty-four  million  dollars  and  its  college 
property  at  over  seven  million  dollars.  For  missions  the 
Church  had  raised  during  the  quadrennium  just  a  little  short 
of  three  million  dollars,  an  advance  of  forty-three  per  cent  on 
the  givings  of  the  previous  quadrenniums.  These  figures  did 
not  include  the  offerings  of  the  Woman's  Missionary  Society, 
which  brought  the  sum  up  to  the  neighborhood  of  three  and 
three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars.  The  publishing  interests 
of  the  Church  had  made  an  exceptional  record  of  progress. 
Every  periodical  in  the  Church  showed  an  increase  of  circula- 
tion. 

The  fraternal  representative  from  the  Methodism  of  the 
South  to  this  General  Conference  was  the  Rev.  W.  N.  Ains- 
worth,  D.D.  Of  the  address  of  Dr.  Ainsworth  an  official 
editor  of  the  Canadian  Church  said :  "It  was  truly  in  demon- 


372 


History  of  Methodism. 


stration  of  the  Spirit  and  in  power,  eloquent,  comprehensive, 
forceful  and  convincing  in  delivery,  apostolic  in  its  earnestness 
and  insistence  upon  fundamental  truth.  It  was  pronounced  by 
hundreds  who  heard  it  one  of  the  great  addresses  of  a  life- 
time." An  incident  of  the  Conference  was  "the  coining  of  a 
strong  deputation  from  the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational 
Churches  to  present  the  matter  of  union."  We  have  in  a 
previous  chapter  adverted  to  the  record  of  advance  made  by 
the  Church  union  sentiment  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  At 
this  sitting  the  cause  was  put  visibly  forward.  At  recent  meet- 
ings of  both  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  Churches  of 
the  Dominion  the  prospects  of  union  have  been  still  further 
advanced;  so  that  a  united  Canadian  Christendom,  with  the 
exception  of  two  of  the  more  virile  denominations,  seems  all 
but  a  certainty  in  the  near  future,  so  much  have  the  sentiment 
and  possibilities  of  union  grown  during  the  last  two  years. 

In  England,  far  more  even  than  in  Canada,  the  Conference 
of  the  people  called  Methodists  was  meeting  under  conditions 
made  stringent  and  distressful  by  the  war.  The  session  of  the 
Conference  for  1915  was  held  in  Birmingham  on  July  14.  It 
was  the  seventh  in  the  order  of  Conferences  to  sit  in  that  his- 
toric city.  The  first  had  met  in  1836  under  the  presidency  of 
Jabez  Bunting.  In  1854  John  Farrar  had .  presided ;  and  in 
1865  the  African  missionary,  William  Shaw,  was  in  the  chair, 
Benjamin  Gregory  in  1879,  and  in  1894  Walford  Green.  A I 
the  session  of  1915  the  Bev.  B.  W.  Moss,  D.D.,  was  the  Presi- 
dent designate.  He  is  the  successor  of  Dr.  W.  D.  Pope  as  the- 
ological tutor  at  Didsbury  College.  Dr.  Telford  presents  some 
interesting  notes  concerning  the  first  Birmingham  Conference. 
Rev.  Bobert  Newton,  so  well  known  in  the  past  history  of  the 
Connection,  was  Secretary.  Dr.  Bunting,  in  the  name  of  the 
Conference,  thanked  him  at  the  end  of  the  session  for  his  great 
service.  Dr.  Telford  adds  that  it  is  amusing  to  find  that  gold 
medals  were  given  the  President  and  Secretary.  It  was  at  this 
session  of  the  Conference  that  Dr.  Wilbur  Pisk,  the  famous 
early  American  Methodist  educator,  was  present,  not  as  a  reg- 
ularly sent  delegate,  as  supposed  by  Dr.  Telford,  but  neverthe- 
less as  a  representative  and  welcome  visitor.  Dr.  Fisk  made 
an  address  before  the  Conference  which,  one  is  not  surprised 


Wilbur  Fish — English  Methodism.  'Ml] 


to  learn,  thrilled  and  stirred  the  hearts  of  all.  It  was  at  this 
session  of  the  Conference  that  ministers  were  first  ordained 
by  the  imposition  of  hands,  an  act  which  Dr.  Fisk  said  would 
greatly  please  the  Methodists  across  the  water. 

Despite  the  stress  and  destruction  of  the  war,  the  reports 
of  1915  showed  that  the  work  had  been  wonderfully  main- 
tained. Tens  of  thousands  of  the  younger  laymen  of  the 
Church  were  in  the  British  armies  in  Flanders,  in  the  Balkans, 
and  on  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula.  Thousands  had  laid  down 
their  lives  on  these  gory  fields.  We  repeat  no  statistics  for 
these  years,  as  such  showing  would  give  no  correct  view  of  the 
growth  of  Methodism  in  a  land  so  distressed.  But  the  mission 
work  of  the  Church,  its*  endeavors  in  the  home  field,  especially 
in  connection  with  the  great  evangelistic  halls,  and  the  work 
of  preaching  to  the  soldiers  at  drill  and  in  the  military  camps 
revealed  the  spirit  that  made  Methodism  in  the  beginning. 
The  report  of  the  Book  Steward,  Rev.  J.  Albert  Sharp,  showed 
that,  despite  the  strain  of  war,  the  publishing  interests  of  the 
Church  had  prospered.  He  was  able  to  report  a  grant  of  more 
than  eleven  thousand  dollars  to  the  Auxiliary  Fund,  the  An- 
nuitant Fund,  and  other  connectional  objects,  which  was  con- 
siderably more  than  was  reported  the  year  before. 

A  memorable  incident  of  the  Conference  was  stated  to  be 
the  ordination  of  young  ministers  who  were  going  out  as  chap- 
lains to  the  various  regiments.  Dr.  Telford  relates  that  eleven 
men  in  khaki  were  thus  ordained  in  one  evening.  This  was 
only  a  part  of  the  contingent  assigned  to  the  department  of 
military  evangelization. 

The  Conference  reported  the  death  of  fifty-seven  ministers 
in  Great  Britain  and  two  in  Ireland,  with  seven  in  the  foreign 
mission.  The  roll  of  the  dead  included  the  names  of  John 
Gould,  who  had  rendered  conspicuous  service  in  East  Anglia 
in  leading  a  forward  movement  which  resulted  in  the  erection 
of  eighty-six  chapels  and  the  restoration  of  twenty-five  others. 
Another  was  the  veteran  Joseph  Nettleton,  who  had  been  a 
leader  in  the  early  missionary  triumphs  in  the  Fiji  Islands. 
The  Rev.  Charles  H.  Crookshank,  of  the  Irish  ministry,  who 
in  1004  had  been  a  fraternal  messenger  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  North,  was  also  numbered  among  the  dead. 


374 


History  of  Methodism. 


Conclusion. 

A  fitting  close  to  the  era  of  Methodist  advance  and  expan- 
sion to  which  the  chapters  of  this  volume  have  been  given  was 
the  sitting  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  at  Saratoga 
Springs,  New  York,  in  May,  1916.  The  fraternal  representa- 
tive of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  this  sitting 
was  the  Rev.  Edwin  B.  Chappell,  D.D.,  Sunday  School  Editor 
of  the  Church.  In  his  address  he  maintained  and  honored  the 
record  which  the  distinguished  representatives  of  the  Church, 
his  predecessors  in  the  same  office,  had  made.  His  words  were 
wise  and  earnest,  and  fragrant  with  the  spirit  of  true  frater- 
nity. 

In  addition  to  the  official  fraternal  visit  and  address  of  Dr. 
Chappell,  Dr.  James  W.  Lee,  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference,  was 
an  invited  guest  and  speaker  at  this  Conference,  delivering  an 
address  at  the  anniversary  of  the  American  Bible  Society.  The 
fact  and  the  fine  periods  of  Dr.  Lee's  address  called  to  mind 
the  historic  address  of  Bishop  Pierce,  speaking  in  a  similar 
capacity  at  the  General  Conference  of  1844. 

In  general,  the  acts  of  the  great  Methodist  body  which  sat 
at  Saratoga  Springs  are  of  too  recent  happening,  and  many 
of  them  too  necessarily  related  to  the  changing  thought  and 
action  of  the  current  times,  to  be  represented  in  the  permanent 
record  of  history.  The  one  great  crowning  action  which  looked 
both  backward  and  forward,  and  which  properly  belongs  to  the 
history  of  universal  Methodism,  was  the  legislation  of  that 
body  touching  the  long-pending  question  of  Methodist  unifica- 
tion. In  an  early  chapter  we  have  anticipated  and  fully  traced 
the  course  of  negotiations  for  the  promotion  of  the  related 
causes  of  comity,  federation,  and  unification  down  to  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Southern  General  Conference  in  1014.  In  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  Joint  Commission  on  Federation  developed 
as  early  as  December,  1010,  "negotiations  concerning  unifica- 
tion by  reorganization,"  and  that  these  negotiations  involved 
the  prospective  union,  or  unification,  of  the  Methodist  Protes- 
tant Church,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


Quadrennial  Conferences — Reports  on  Unification.  :>7.~> 


This  plan  suggested  that  the  unified  Church  should  have  com 
mon  Articles  of  Faith,  common  conditions  of  membership,  a 
common  hymnal,  a  common  catechism,  and  a  common  ritual. 
The  governing  body  was  to  be  a  General  Conference  and  three 
or  four  Quadrennial  Conferences.  The  colored  membership  of 
the  Churches  were  to  constitute  one  of  these  Quadrennial  Con- 
ferences; the  General  Conference  was  to  consist  of  two  houses ; 
the  Quadrennial  Conferences  were  to  name  the  bishops,  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  general  body.  Neither  the  General  Confer- 
ence nor  the  Quadrennial  Conferences  were  to  be  invested  with 
final  authority  to  interpret  the  constitutionality  of  their  ac- 
tions. 

The  executive  officers  of  the  respective  commissions  were  au- 
thorized to  report  to  their  several  General  Conferences  the 
results  of  the  deliberations  of  the  Joint  Commission,  to  be  the 
basis  of  such  specific  action  and  authorization  as  might  to 
these  General  Conferences  appear  desirable.  We  have  already 
noted  the  fact  that  the  General  Conference  of  the  Church  in 
the  North  meeting  in  1912  took  no  action  upon  these  proposals. 
We  have  also  adverted  to  the  fact  that  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Church  in  the  South  which  sat  in  May,  1914,  met 
the  proposals  in  an  explicit  action;  and  while  regarding  the 
plan  as  tentative,  it  held  it  to  contain  "the  basic  principles  of 
a  genuine  unification  of  the  Methodist  bodies  in  the  United 
States  and  especially  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  the  method  of  re- 
organization." One  modification  of  the  plan  was  suggested 
by  the  General  Conference  in  these  words:  "We  recommend 
that  the  colored  membership  of  the  various  Methodist  bodies 
be  formed  into  an  independent  organization  holding  fraternal 
relations  with  the  reorganized  and  united  Church." 

The  General  Conference  of  the  Church  in  the  North  at  its 
1916  sitting  appointed  a  committee  of  sixty  members  to  de- 
liberate upon  these  propositions  and  make  a  report  to  the  Con- 
ference. On  May  16  the  following  report  was  submitted  and 
adopted  without  dissent,  amid  expressions  and  demonstrations 
of  great  enthusiasm : 

Believing  that  the  united  Church  will  have  greatly  increased  power 
In  its  conflict  with  evil  in  all  lands;  that  it  will  be  able  to  lay  a  more 


376 


History  of  Methodism. 


effective  emphasis  on  the  fundamentals  of  Christianity;  that  it  will  be 
more  potent  in  developing  the  higher  loyalty  to  the  supremacy  of  our 
common  Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ;  and  that  such  a  union  will 
hasten  the  development  of  a  truly  world  Church,  which  will  make  for 
the  rapid  advancement  and  final  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  world — the  Committee  on  Unification  makes  the  following  recom- 
mendations: 

1.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  considers  the  plan  outlined  in 
the  suggestions  that  were  adopted  by  the  Joint  Commission  represent- 
ing the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  approved  by  the  General  Conference  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  South,  with  one  modifying  recommendation  as 
tentative,  but  nevertheless  as  containing  the  basic  principles  of  genuine 
unification  of  the  Methodist  bodies  in  the  United  States,  and  especially 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  the  method  of  reorganization. 

2.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  regards  the  unification  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 
and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  by  the  plan  proposed  by  the  Joint 
Commission  on  Federation  as  feasible  and  desirable,  and  hereby  declares 
itself  in  favor  of  the  unification  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  accordance  with  this 
general  plan  of  reorganization,  with  the  following  recommendations: 

(1)  That  the  General  Conference  be  made  the  supreme  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  body  of  the  Church,  under  constitutional  provi- 
sions and  restrictions. 

(2)  That  the  number  of  Quadrennial  Conferences  as  stated  in  the  pro- 
posed plan  be  so  increased  as  to  provide  more  adequately  for  the  needs 
of  the  organized  Church  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

(3)  That  the  General  Conference  consist  of  a  single  house,  made  up 
of  delegates  elected  by  the  Quadrennial  or  Annual  Conferences  or  both. 

We  also  favor  the  unification  of  all  or  any  Methodist  bodies  who  ac- 
cept this  proposed  plan  after  it  has  been  accepted  and  perfected  by  both 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church. 

(4)  That,  conforming  to  the  suggestion  of  the  Joint  Commission,  the 
colored  membership  of  the  reorganized  Church  be  constituted  into  one 
or  more  Quadrennial  Conferences. 

The  report  of  the  committee  as  adopted  by  the  General  Con- 
ference authorized  the  bishops  to  appoint  a  commission  of 
twenty-five  members — five  bishops,  ten  ministers,  and  ten  lay- 
men— to  confer  with  commissioners  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  other 
Methodist  bodies  in  the  United  States  in  elaborating  and  per- 
fecting the  tentative  plan  proposed  and  in  carrying  forward 


Members  of  the  Unification  Commissions.  Ml 


such  negotiations  as  have  for  their  purpose  the  unification  in 
accordance  with  the  basic  principles  enunciated  by  the  Joint 
Commission  and  approved  by  the  General  Conferences  of  the 
two  Episcopal  Methodist  bodies.  The  list  of  commissioners 
from  the  Church  in  the  North  was  named  as  follows: 

Bishops:  Earl  Cranston,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  John  W.  Ham- 
ilton, Boston,  Mass.;  William  F.  McDowell,  Washington,  D. 
C;  Frederick  D.  Leete,  Atlanta,  Ga. ;  Richard  J.  Cooke,  Helena, 
Mont. 

Ministers :  Edgar  Blake,  Secretary  Board  of  Sunday  Schools, 
Chicago,  111. ;  James  R.  Day,  Chancellor  of  Syracuse  University, 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. ;  David  G.  Downey,  Book  Editor,  New  York 
City ;  John  F.  Goucher,  President  Emeritus  of  Goucher  College, 
Baltimore,  Md. ;  Robert  E.  Jones,  Editor  of  Southwestern  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  New  Orleans,  La. ;  Albert  J.  Nast,  Editor  of 
Christliche  Apologete,  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Frank  Neff,  pastor, 
Tulsa,  Okla. ;  Edwin  M.  Randall,  pastor,  Seattle,  Wash. ;  Clau- 
dius B.  Spencer,  Editor  of  Central  Christian  Advocate,  Kansas 
City,  Mo. ;  Joseph  W.  Van  Cleve,  Secretary  of  Commission  on 
Finance,  Methodist  Book  Concern,  Chicago,  111. 

Laymen :  George  Warren  Brown,  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  Charles  W. 
Fairbanks,  former  Vice  President;  Dr.  Abraham  W.  Harris, 
Secretary  of  Education,  New  York;  Charles  W.  Kinne,  Jack- 
sonville, Fla. ;  I.  Garland  Penn,  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
Freedman's  Aid  Society,  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Ira  E.  Robinson, 
presiding  Judge  of  Supreme  Court,  Charleston,  W.  Va. ;  Henry 
Wade  Rogers,  Judge  of  United  States  Court,  New  Haven, 
Conn.;  William  Rule,  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  Editor  of  Tribune; 
Alex  M.  Simpson,  Jr.,  attorney,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Rolla  V. 
Watt,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

In  accordance  with  the  directions  given  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1914,  the  nine  Southern  members  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  Methodism  met  at  Tate  Springs,  Tenn.,  August  9, 
1916,  and  by  a  ballot  election  added  to  their  number  sixteen 
others,  so  that  the  commission  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  on  unification  stands  as  follows :  Bishop  A.  W. 
Wilson,  Baltimore;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  Muskogee;  Bishop  Col- 
lins Denny,  Richmond;  Bishop  Edwin  D.  Mouzon,  Dallas; 
Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  Atlanta ;  Rev.  Frank  M.  Thomas,  D.D., 


378 


History  of  Methodism. 


pastor  Fourth  Avenue  Church,  Louisville;  Rev.  W.  J.  Young, 
D.D.,  professor  in  Candler  School  of  Theology,  Atlanta;  Rev. 
John  M.  Moore,  D.D.,  Secretary  of  Home  Missions,  Nashville; 
Rev.  C.  M.  Bishop,  D.D.,  President  of  Southwestern  University, 
Georgetown,  Tex. ;  Rev.  E.  B.  Chappell,  D.D.,  editor  of  Sunday 
School  Literature,  Nashville;  Rev.  T.  N.  Ivey,  D.D.,  editor  of 
Christian  Advocate,  Nashville;  Rev.  A.  F.  Watkins,  D.D.,  Pres- 
ident of  Millsaps  College,  Jackson,  Miss.;  Rev.  H.  M.  Du  Bose, 
D.D.,  editor  of  Methodist  Review,  Nashville;  Rev.  W.  N.  Ains- 
worth,  D.D.,  pastor  of  Mulberry  Street  Church,  Macon,  Ga. ; 
Rev.  A.  J.  Lamar,  D.D.,  Publishing  Agent,  Nashville.  Lay- 
men: Judge  M.  L.  Walton,  lawyer,  Woodstock,  Va. ;  Dr.  H. 
N.  Snyder,  President  of  Wofford  College,  Spartanburg,  S.  C. ; 
Mr.  Percy  D.  Maddin,  lawyer,  Nashville;  Dr.  R.  S.  Hyer,  Pres- 
ident of  Southern  Methodist  University,  Dallas ;  Dr.  J.  H.  Rey- 
nolds, President  of  Hendrix  College,  Conway,  Ark.;  Dr.  R.  E. 
Blackwell,  President  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  Ashland, 
Va. ;  Judge  J.  L.  Kelley,  Supreme  Court  of  Virginia,  Bristol, 
Va.;  Hon.  T.  D.  Samford,  United  States  District  Attorney, 
Opelika,  Ala. ;  Mr.  John  R.  Pepper,  merchant  and  banker,  Mem- 
phis, Tenn. ;  Col.  E.  C.  Reeves,  lawyer,  Johnson  City,  Tenn. 

Alternates  were  selected  as  follows:  Bishop  W.  B.  Murrah, 
Memphis;  Bishop  James  Atkins,  Waynesville,  N.  C;  Rev.  W. 
Asbury  Christian,  D.D.,  pastor,  Richmond,  Va.;  Rev.  E.  V. 
Regester,  D.D.,  pastor,  Alexandria,  Va. ;  Rev.  C  H.  Briggs, 
D.D.,  Sedalia,  Mo.  Laymen:  Mr.  H.  H.  White,  lawyer,  Alex- 
andria, La.;  Judge  E.  W.  Hines,  attorney  for  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Mr.  G.  T.  Fitzhugh, 
lawyer,  Memphis,  Tenn. 

This  last  record  is  of  events  which  have  fallen  out  just  as  the 
pages  of  this  history  are  being  finally  given  to  the  hands  of  the 
printer.  Spirited  discussion  of  the  variations  from  the  original 
plan  devised  by  the  Joint  Commission  and  expressed  in  the 
action  of  the  two  General  Conferences  has  gone  on  in  the  press 
of  the  two  Connections.  That  there  is  profound  interest  in  the 
movement  for  unification,  and  that  there  is  universal  desire  for 
accommodation  on  a  basis  safe  and  satisfactory  to  both  houses 
of  Methodism  and  calculated  to  advance  the  interests  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  is  doubted  by  none.    Every  devout  and  un- 


An  Explanatory  Note. 


selfish  heart  will  pray  for  such  a  consummation.  Its  coming 
will  be  a  foregleam  and  pledge  of  the  dawning  of  Messiah's 
reign. 

Note. — The  course  of  this  history  properly  concludes  with 
this  chapter;  but  in  order  to  give  the  fullest  view  of  events 
and  to  adapt  the  volume  to  the  uses  of  the  largest  possible 
number  of  readers,  we  have  added  certain  chapters  containing 
sketches  of  the  Annual  Conferences,  connectional  and  Confer- 
ence schools,  and  the  denominational  press  other  than  the  con- 
nectional publications  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  It  will  be  perceived  that  these  concluding  chapters  are 
less  formal  in  conception  and  execution  than  are  those  in  the 
body  of  the  volume.  They  are  meant  to  serve  particularly  a 
denominational  use.  The  author  has  had  to  rely  largely  upon 
the  local  and  official  representatives  of  the  Conferences  and 
other  interests  treated,  which  will  explain  the  diverse  lengths 
of  the  sketches.  In  some  cases  it  was  found  impossible  to  se- 
cure the  cooperation  necessary  to  assemble  all  the  material 
desired.  All  that  which  has  been  used  was,  however,  verified 
by  official  records. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


SKETCHES  OF  ANNUAL  CONFERENCES.* 

THE  vital  components,  the  living  integers,  of  that  organic 
whole  of  Methodism  known  as  the  Connection  are  the  An- 
nual Conferences.  From  them  and  through  them  flows  the  cor- 
porate life  of  the  Church.  The  General  Conference  derives  from 
them  its  existence  and  authority,  and  to  them  must  be  referred 
the  arbitrament  of  every  issue  which  arises  under  the  restric- 
tions of  the  Constitution.  At  this  time  (since  the  General 
Conference  of  1914)  Southern  Methodism  consists  of  forty-six 
Annual  Conferences  and  six  missions.  These  missions  are  in 
Japan,  Korea,  Mexico,  the  West  Indies,  and  Africa.  The  Con- 
ferences, with  the  exception  of  the  China  Mission  Conference, 
the  Conferences  in  Brazil,  and  a  portion  of  the  Mexican  Border 
Conference,  are  all  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  and 
chiefly  in  the  Southern  half  of  the  republic. 

We  have  thought  it  well  to  give  as  a  part  of  this  history  a 
brief  but  inclusive  sketch  of  each  of  these  Conferences  and  mis- 
sions, in  order  that  the  individuality  and  potency  of  each  con- 
stituted body  might  become  manifest  to  the  reader. 

Baltimore  Conference. 

"The  old  Baltimore  Conference"  dates  its  territorial  existence 
from  the  year  1801,  though  its  record  goes  much  farther  back. 
The  Journal  for  191G  reads:  "The  one  hundred  and  thirty-sec- 
ond session."  The  first  Methodist  Conference  held  in  Baltimore 
was  in  the  year  177(1,  the  ever-memorable  year  of  American 
civic  history.  From  that  onward  until  1808  Baltimore  held  a 
primacy  in  Methodist  conventional  life.  In  the  year  in  which 
the  Holy  Club  at  Oxford  was  organized  the  town  of  Baltimore 
was  being  laid  out.    In  the  providence  of  God  they  were  made 

*For  much  of  the  material  contained  in  these  sketches  the  author  is 
indebted  to  several  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Annual  Conferences.  In 
other  cases  the  matter  has  been  worked  up  from  the  official  records.  In 
every  case  personal  appraisement  and  estimates  of  leadership  are  on 
the  merit  of  the  author's  own  judgment. 
(380) 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


381 


the  one  to  answer  the  other  in  the  aid  of  the  spiritual  king- 
dom. 

As  has  already  been  noted,  Kobert  Strawbridge  is  adjudged 
to  have  been  the  pioneer  Methodist  preacher  in  the  New  World, 
having  begun  his  ministry  in  Maryland  as  early  as  17G0  to  1702. 
Fifteen  persons  or  more  constituted  the  "first  society  in  Mary- 
land and  America"  at  the  house  of  Robert  Strawbridge,  as  testi- 
fied to  by  Bishop  Asbury  in  his  Journal.  The  names  of  the 
members  of  this  first  society  were:  John  Evans,  William  Dur- 
bin,  William  Daman,  George  Havener,  Richard  Smith,  Thomas 
Leakin,  James  Crawford,  Robert  Walker,  William  Snader, 
Thomas  Donaldson,  Daniel  Stephenson,  Philip  Mcodemus,  An- 
drew Poulson,  Jacob  Cassell,  George  Logman  (with  their  wives 
and  some  children).  Later  the  following  names  were  added  to 
the  society:  John  Todd,  Alexander  Saxton,  Mrs.  George  War- 
field,  Hezekiah  Bonham,  John  and  Paul  Hagerty.  Several  of 
these  names  have  been  preeminent  in  the  history  of  the  laity  of 
Methodism. 

The  first  society  in  Baltimore  County  was  gathered  by  Straw- 
bridge  at  the  home  of  Daniel  Evans,  near  Baltimore  City. 
Richard  Owings,  the  first  native  American  local  preacher,  was 
a  member  of  this  early  society.  The  first  visit  of  Bishop  As- 
bury to  Baltimore  was  in  company  with  John  King,  somewhere 
near  the  middle  of  November,  1772.  This  was  a  brief  call  and 
meant  only  to  spy  out  the  land.  One  year  later  Mr.  Asbury  re- 
newed his  visit  and,  "assisted  by  Jesse  Hollinsworth,  George 
Wells,  Richard  Moale,  George  Robinson,  and  John  Woodward,'' 
purchased  at  five  shillings  a  lot  sixty  feet  wide  on  Strawberry 
Alley  and  seventy -five  feet  on  Fleet  Street,  upon  which  to  build 
a  house  of  worship.  This  building,  in  its  original  state,  has 
been  preserved  to  the  present  day.  In  the  following  year  two 
lots  were  purchased  in  another  part  of  the  city,  and  upon  il 
was  built  the  famous  Lovely  Lane  Chapel,  so  closely  associated 
with  many  of  the  happenings  in  the  history  of  early  Methodism. 
This  chapel  was  the  seat  not  only  of  the  first  Baltimore  Con- 
ference, held  in  1776,  but  also  of  the  Christmas  Conference,  at 
which  Bishop  Asbury  was  consecrated  to  the  episcopacy. 

At  the  1776  session  of  the  Conference  nine  applicants  were 
received  on  trial  into  the  traveling  connection.    They  were: 


382 


History  of  Methodism. 


Xicbolas  Watters,  John  Siglnan,  Joseph  Hartley,  Francis  Poy- 
thress,  James  Foster,  Freeborn  Garrettson,  Thomas  McClure, 
Isom  Tatum,  William  Wrenne. 

Disunion  and  controversy  distressed  the  whole  Connection  of 
Methodists  in  the  colonies,  then  warring  with  the  mother  coun- 
try,  in  1779.  A  majority  of  the  Conference,  of  which  there  was 
then  but  one  yearly  session,  had  ordained  a  presbytery  of  nine 
members,  who  were  authorized  to  administer  the  sacraments. 
This  office  they  were  regularly  discharging.  A  minority  of  the 
members  of  the  Conference  adhered  with  Mr.  Asbury  in  the 
"'little  Conference"  of  the  same  year  in  protest  against  this  ac- 
tion. The  society  seemed  hopelessly  divided.  This  "little" 
Conference  met  in  April,  1780,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and 
sent  three  of  its  members — Asbury,  Watters,  and  Garrettson — 
to  visit  the  larger  Conference  to  be  held  in  May  at  Mannakin- 
town,  Va.  After  agonizing  and  apparently  hopeless  interviews, 
the  Virginia  brethren  acceded  to  the  request  of  Mr.  Asbury  and 
referred  their  necessities  to  Mr.  Wesley.  From  that  time  Mr. 
Asbury  became  again  the  superintendent  of  the  united  societies 
in  the  Old  World  and  so  continued  until  he  was  made  bishop 
de  jure  by  the  Christinas  Conference. 

In  1782  two  sessions  of  the  Conference  were  held,  but  were 
considered  as  a  continuous  sitting.  The  first  Conference  met 
at  Ellis  Chapel,  Va.,  April  17,  and  adjourned  to  meet  in  Balti- 
more May  21.  These  double  sessions  continued  until  1784.  It 
was  during  this  period  that  the  Baltimore  session  acquired  the 
distinction  of  becoming  the  "upper  house"  of  Methodism.  All 
questions  of  general  importance  arising  in  the  first  session  were 
carried  to  the  Baltimore  sitting  for  a  final  vote  and  determina- 
tion. From  177:i  to  1784  the  heading  of  the  Conference  min- 
utes was:  "Of  some  conversations  between  the  preachers  in 
connection  with  the  Rev.  John  Wesley."  From  1785  onward 
to  a  late  date  the  legend  was:  "Minutes  taken  at  the  several 
A  nn nal  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  Previ- 
ous to  1801  the  several  circuits  of  the  Connection  were  grouped 
together,  without  general  geograr>hical  designation,  and  each 
group  under  a  presiding  elder.  In  1801  these  groups  were  desi^ 
nated  as  districts,  and  along  with  the  others  there  appeared  a 
Baltimore  District.    In  1802  (the  arrangement  having  been  ef- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


383 


fected  in  1801)  these  districts  were  grouped  into  seven  Confer- 
ences, several  districts  to  the  Conference.  In  the  Baltimore 
Conference  were  the  Alexandria,  the  Pittsburgh,  and  the  Balti- 
more Districts,  describing  somewhat  the  same  territory  as  that 
now  embraced  in  that  body. 

The  liveliest  memory  of  Baltimore  Methodism  is  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Christmas  Conference  of  1784.  It  was  in  honor  of 
this  sitting  that  the  famous  Centenary  Conference  of  1884  was 
held.  Almost  immediately  after  the  Christmas  Conference 
steps  were  taken  to  build  a  larger  and  more  commodious  house 
of  worship  in  Baltimore  City.  This  movement  was  the  begin- 
ning of  Light  Street  Chapel,  which  also  played  an  important 
part  as  the  meeting  place  of  early  Methodist  bodies. 

From  1802  onward  it  is  quite  easy  to  trace  the  history  of  the 
Baltimore  Conference  and  also  to  note  the  record  of  the  preach- 
ers who  are  chief  in  its  leadership.  The  minutes  for  1802  show 
Daniel  Hitt,  Thornton  Fleming,  and  Wilson  Lee  as  presiding 
elders  of  the  districts.  William  Watters  was  pastor  at  George- 
town and  Washington  City.  Watters  was  famous  as  being  the 
first  native  American  Methodist  itinerant  and  also  as  having 
been  left  by  Rankin  in  charge  of  the  societies  at  the  time  of  his 
departure  for  England  and  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Asbury  into 
Delaware.  Joshua  Wells  was  in  charge  of  Baltimore  City.  In 
1803  a  new  district  appeared,  the  Greenbrier,  with  James  P. 
Ward  as  elder.  In  1804  the  minutes  show  Enoch  George  as 
presiding  elder  of  the  Baltimore  District.  Two  new  districts 
appear  for  this  year,  the  Monongahela,  with  Thornton  Flem- 
ing as  presiding  elder,  and  the  Susquehanna,  presided  over  by 
James  Smith. 

In  the  year  1808,  the  year  in  which  the  last  of  the  undelegated 
General  Conferences  met,  the  Baltimore  minutes  show  the  fol- 
lowing question  and  answer :  "Who  are  admitted  on  trial?  An- 
swer: Henry  Mon tooth,  Joshua  Monroe,  John  Kimberlin,  Eli 
Henkle,  James  Wilson,  Jacob  Snyder,  John  Rhoades,  Allen 
Green,  and  Daniel  Stansbury."  The  list  of  obituaries  con- 
tains the  names  of  George  Dougharty,  Bennet  Kendrick,  Henry 
Willis,  and  Richard  Swain.  A  note  in  the  minutes  says :  "Dan- 
iel Hitt  travels  with  Bishop  Asbury  until  General  Conference." 
Nelson  Reed  was  this  year  made  presiding  elder  of  the  Balti- 


384 


History  of  Methodism. 


more  District,  and  Joshua  Wells  w  as  stationed  al  Washington 
City. 

The  delegates  from  the  Baltimore  Conference  to  the  first 
delegated  General  Conference,  which  met  in  New  York  City  in 
1812,  were  as  follows:  Nelson  Reed,  Joseph  Toy.  Joshua  Wells, 
Nicholas  Snethen,  Enoch  George,  Asa  Shinn,  Hamilton  Jeffer- 
son, Jacob  Gruber,  Robert  R.  Roberts,  William  Ryland,  Chris- 
topher Fry,  James  Smith,  Robert  Burch,  Henry  Smith,  and 
Andrew  Hemphill.  In  the  turbulent  years  between  1820  and 
1828  the  Baltimore  Conference  was  represented  in  the  General 
body  by  such  as  Joseph  Frye,  John  Emory,  Stephen  G.  Roszell, 
Beverley  Waugh,  Nelson  Reed,  Alfred  Griffith,  Daniel  Hitt, 
Joshua  Soule,  and  Richard  Ty dings. 

In  1844,  the  year  of  disruption  and  division,  the  statistics  of 
the  Baltimore  Conference  showed  a  total  enrolled  membership 
of  55,852  white  and  16,973  colored.  The  appointments  showed 
John  A.  Collins  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Baltimore  District, 
Thomas  B.  Sargent,  presiding  elder  of  the  Potomac  District, 
while  John  S.  Martin  was  one  of  the  preachers  assigned  to 
Baltimore  City,  and  Norval  Wilson  was  pastor  of  Wesley  Chap- 
el, in  Washington.  The  representatives  of  the  Conference  in 
the  famous  General  Conference  of  1844  were:  Henry  Slicer, 
John  A.  Collins.  John  Davis,  Alfred  Griffith,  John  A.  Gare, 
John  Bear,  Nicholas  J.  B.  Morgan,  Thomas  B.  Sargent,  Charles 
B.  Tippet,  and  George  Hildt. 

A  division  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  into  Baltimore  and 
East  Baltimore  occurred  in  1857.  We  have  already  given  an 
account  of  the  events  which  fell  out  in  the  period  between  this 
date  and  1861,  when  the  old  Baltimore  Conference  separated 
itself  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America  and  became  an  independent 
body.  We  have  also  traced  the  course  of  its  history  until  1860, 
when  the  old  guard — a  majority  of  the  membership — trans- 
ferred itself  to  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  The  representatives  of  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  the  General  Conference  of  18GG  were:  Samuel 
Iiegester,  John  S.  Martin,  Eldridge  R.  Veitch,  Norval  Wilson, 
S.  G.  Roszell,  William  G.  Eggleston,  and  John  Poisal.  Since 
that  date  the  history  of  the  Conference  has  been  one  with  the 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


385 


other  bodies  of  the  Southern  Church.  The  clerical  leaders  of 
that  great  Conference  to-day  are :  Forrest  Prettyman,  Chaplain 
to  Congress,  E.  V.  Regester,  T.  J.  Lambert,  H.  M.  Canter,  D. 
H.  Kern,  C.  D.  Bulla,  C.  D.  Harris,  editor  of  the  Baltimore 
Southern  Methodist,  J.  A.  Anderson,  H.  P.  Hamill,  J.  A.  Kern, 
H.  H.  Sherman,  W.  S.  Hammond,  J.  H.  Wells,  and  others. 
Amongst  its  leading  laymen  are:  L.  W.  Davis,  T.  T.  Fishburne, 
F.  E.  Thomas,  E.  S.  Conrad,  M.  L.  Walton,  A.  B.  Pugh,  E.  C. 
Bare,  and  John  A.  Taylor 

Virginia  Conference. 

The  Virginia  Annual  Conference  dates  its  sessions  from  the 
meeting  held  at  Mason's,  Brunswick  County,  Va.,  in  May,  1785, 
the  year  following  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  December,  1784. 

The  Conference  included  originally  a  large  part  of  the  terri- 
tory now  belonging  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference.  In  1810 
and  until  1813  there  were  six  districts,  three  in  North  Caro- 
lina and  three  in  Virginia.  In  1837  the  North  Carolina  terri- 
tory, with  the  exception  of  a  few  charges,  was  set  off  from  the 
Virginia  Conference,  taking  with  it  nearly  one-half  of  the  lay 
and  clerical  membership.  In  1894  the  remaining  territory,  ly- 
ing within  the  State  of  North  Carolina — nine  pastoral  charges 
— was  transferred  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 

The  first  twenty-six  sessions  of  the  Virginia  Conference  were 
presided  over  by  Bishop  Asbury;  then  Bishop  McKendree  oc- 
cupied the  chair  for  eight  consecutive  sessions.  After  him  came 
Bishop  Roberts  for  two  sessions  and  Bishop  George  for  five. 

In  1810  there  were  forty-five  pastoral  charges,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  25,000.  In  1915,  a  little  more  than  a  century  later, 
there  were  267  charges,  reporting  a  membership  of  123,550,  the 
largest  in  the  Connection. 

In  the  matter  of  ministerial  support  and  benevolent  contri- 
butions the  Virginia  Conference  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list. 
The  total  contributed  for  all  purposes  in  1915  fell  not  far  short 
of  one  million  dollars,  an  average  of  about  eight  dollars  per 
member. 

In  the  field  of  education  this  Conference  has  a  most  honorable 
record.    Randolph-Macon  College,  originally  at  Boydton,  in 
25 


38G 


History  of  Methodism. 


Mecklenburg  County,  but  now  at  Ashland,  Va.,  was  the  first 
Methodist  college  incorporated  in  America.  From  this  vener- 
able institution  as  a  nucleus  there  has  been  evolved  in  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  under  the  guiding  hand  of  that  prince  of 
educators  the  late  William  W.  Smith,  the  Randolph-Macon 
System  of  Schools  and  Colleges,  which  has  already  won  an  en- 
viable reputation  throughout  the  country.  It  includes  two 
first-class  colleges,  one  for  men  at  Ashland  and  one  for  women 
at  Lynchburg,  Va. ;  two  academies  for  boys,  at  Bedford  City 
and  Front  Royal  respectively;  and  a  training  school  for  girls  al 
Danville,  Va.  This  magnificent  educational  outfit  is  valued  al 
about  one  million  dollars  and  shows  an  enrollment  of  fourteen 
hundred  pupils. 

Next  to  the  Randolph-Macon  System  stands  the  Blackstone 
College  for  Girls,  an  institution  of  comparatively  recent  origin, 
but  with  a  large  and  steadily  increasing  patronage. 

The  Virginia  Conference  has  given  to  the  Church  seven  of 
her  bishops — namely,  William  McKendree,  Enoch  George,  John 
Early,  David  S.  Doggett,  John  C.  Granbery,  and  A.  Coke 
Smith.  Besides  these  may  be  mentioned,  as  conspicuous  for  abil- 
ity and  as  abundant  in  labors:  Jesse  Lee,  Philip  Bruce,  James 
O'Kelly,  Hezekiah  G.  Leigh,  William  A.  Smith;  and,  in  more 
recent  years,  Leroy  M.  Lee,  editor  and  polemic;  James  A.  Dun- 
can, the  silver-tongued  orator;  William  W.  Bennett,  historian 
of  Virginia  Methodism;  John  E.  Edwards,  the  eloquent  preach- 
er and  indefatigable  pastor;  Alex.  G.  Brown,  who,  as  Chair- 
man of  its  Board  of  Finance  for  many  years,  did  much  to 
shape  the  financial  policy  of  his  Conference;  Peter  A.  Peter- 
son, the  beloved  disciple  whose  noble  countenance  and  fine  fig 
ure  arrested  attention  in  every  assembly;  John  J.  Lafferty,  the 
brilliant  paragraphisi ;  Robert  N.  Sledd,  the  polished  preacher; 
Leonidas  Rosser,  the  fiery  evangelist;  and  last,  but  by  no  means 
least,  Paul  Whitehead,  the  prolific  writer  and  the  parliamen- 
tarian of  the  General  Conference,  who  ably  filled  the  secretary- 
ship of  his  Conference  for  forty-seven  years  consecutively,  a  rec- 
ord probably  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  American 
Methodism. 

Worthy  successors  of  these  noble  men  are  still  to  be  found 
in  the  ministry  of  this  historic  Conference,  as:  B.  F.  Lipscomb, 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


387 


W.  J.  Young,  James  Cannon,  W.  A.  Christian,  W.  H.  Bennett, 
J.  W.  Bledsoe,  W.  A.  Smart,  J.  C.  0.  Newton,  W.  B.  Beau 
champ,  E.  H.  Rawlings,  J.  D.  Peters,  II.  C.  Hatcher,  T.  McN. 
Simpson,  C.  F.  Comer,  G.  H.  Lambeth,  J.  C.  Reed,  W.  H.  Ed- 
wards, W.  T.  Green,  and  G.  W.  Jones.  Amongst  prominent  lay 
leaders  in  recent  General  Conferences  have  been :  J.  P.  Branch, 
H.  E.  Barrow,  E.  F.  Story,  Frank  Talbot,  T.  S.  Southgate,  J.  T. 
Catlin,  W.  W.  Vickar,  W.  E.  Ivey,  W.  H.  Vincent,  and  T.  J. 
Barham. 

Western  Virginia  Conference. 

The  General  Conference  of  1850  provided  for  the  organization 
of  the  Western  Virginia  Conference  in  the  following  reso- 
tion:  "That  a  new  Annual  Conference  be  erected  to  be  called 
the  Western  Virginia,  and  that  this  new  Conference  include  all 
that  part  of  the  State  of  Virginia  which  is  or  may  be  under  our 
jurisdiction  not  included  in  the  present  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, and  Holston  Conferences."  On  September  4,  1850,  the 
first  session  was  held.  At  that  time  there  were  twenty-three 
preachers,  twenty-four  appointments,  and  about  five  thousand 
members.  By  1855  these  figures  had  been  doubled.  The  pre- 
siding elders  assigned  to  the  three  districts  at  the  first  sitting- 
were  E.  C.  Thornton,  S.  Kelley,  and  S.  K.  Vaught. 

The  Western  Virginia  Conference  suffered  as  none  of  its 
sister  bodies  did  during  the  terrible  days  of  the  War  between 
the  States.  In  the  General  Minutes  from  1861  to  1865,  in- 
clusive, is  read  the  somber  entry :  "No  minutes  received."  That 
meant  more  than  fiscal  blankness.  In  1860  the  reports  of  pas- 
tors showed  12,505  members.  When  the  Conference  reas- 
sembled in  1866,  the  only  entry  made  in  the  place  of  statistics 
was:  "No  report  possible  in  consequence  of  the  derangements 
caused  by  the  war."  In  1867,  when  some  semblance  of  reports 
could  be  compiled,  the  number  of  members  was  found  to  be  only 
6,685,  showing  that  one-half  of  the  Church  had  been  lost  or 
scattered.  But  the  heroic  itinerants  and  their  faithful  parish- 
ioners went  to  the  task  of  rebuilding  the  waste  places  of  Zion. 
In  1915  pastoral  reports  showed  a  membership  of  31,487,  an 
increase  of  1,628  for  the  year,  a  result  hardly  equaled  in  all 
Methodism. 

The  hero  and  patriarch  of  the  Conference  was  the  Rev.  T.  S. 


388 


History  of  Methodism. 


Wade,  who  died  July  2,  1911.  U.  V.  W.  Darlington,  W.  I.  Can- 
ter, and  H.  M.  Smith  have  represented  the  Conference  in  the 
General  Conference  in  recent  years.  The  Conference  has  many 
faithful  and  loyal  men  in  its  ranks. 

North  Carolina  Conference. 

The  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference  was  formed  by  the 
General  Conference  which  was  held  in  Cincinnati  in  May,  1836, 
the  territory  embraced  in  the  new  Conference  being  cut  off  from 
the  Virginia  Conference.  The  boundaries,  as  defined  at  that 
time,  were  as  follows:  "North  Carolina  Conference  shall  be 
bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  on  the  north  by 
Albemarle  Sound,  Roanoke  and  Staunton  Rivers ;  on  the  west 
by  the  top  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  including  the  counties  of  Wilkes 
and  Iredell ;  on  the  south  by  the  south  lines  of  Iredell,  Rowan, 
Davidson,  Randolph,  and  Chatham  ;  thence  by  Cape  Fear  River, 
except  those  appointments  now  included  in  the  Wilmington  and 
Lincolnton  Districts." 

In  February,  1837,  the  Conference  met  with  the  Virginia 
Conference  in  Petersburg,  Va.,  and  the  first  session  of  the  Con- 
ference as  a  separate  body  was  held  in  Greensboro,  IT.  C,  one 
year  later.  At  this  session  of  the  Conference  Bishop  T.  A. 
Morris  presided,  and  Rev.  Hezekiah  G.  Leigh  was  elected  Sec- 
retary. Some  of  the  names  on  the  roll  of  the  Conference  at 
that  time,  which  are  still  familiar  to  North  Carolina  Method- 
ists, are:  James  Reid,  H.  G.  Leigh,  Peter  Doub,  Moses  Brock, 
R.  O.  Burton,  D.  B.  Nicholson,  Alfred  Norman,  W.  E.  Pell, 
Thomas  R.  Brame,  William  Closs,  Daniel  Culbreth,  and  John 
E.  Edwards.  S.  D.  Bumpas  was  an  undergraduate,  and  Ira  T. 
Wyche  and  James  D.  Lumsden  were  admitted  on  trial. 

At  this  the  first  session  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  due 
consideration  was  given  to  the  subject  of  Christian  education. 
Leasburg  Academy  and  Clemmonsville  Academy  were  given 
the  indorsement  of  the  Conference,  and  trustees  for  each  were 
appointed.  Action  was  taken  looking  to  the  establishment  of 
Greensboro  Female  Collegiate  Institute,  and  special  prayer 
was  offered  for  Randolph-Macon  College. 

Since  the  formation  of  the  Conference,  changes  in  the  bound- 
aries have  been  made  from  time  to  time.   In  1850  a  part  of  the 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


389 


North  Carolina  territory  in  the  South  Carolina  Conference  was 
transferred  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  and  the  remain- 
ing portion  of  this  territory  was  transferred  in  1870.  In  1890, 
at  the  General  Conference  which  was  held  in  St.  Louis,  the 
Western  North  Carolina  Conference  was  formed,  taking  from 
the  North  Carolina  Conference  that  part  of  its  territory  then 
lying  west  of  the  line  now  dividing  the  two  Conferences.  At 
the  same  time  the  North  Carolina  territory  lying  between  the 
Roanoke  and  Chowan  Rivers  was  transferred  frorii  the  Virginia 
Conference  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference.  Four  years  later 
the  remaining  portion  of  the  Virginia  Conference  in  North 
Carolina,  that  lying  north  of  the  Chowan  River,  was  transferred 
to  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 

In  1837,  when  the  Conference  began  its  existence  as  a  sepa- 
rate body,  the  white  membership  reported  was  15,062.  In  1850  a 
change  in  boundaries  was  made,  and  the  membership  was  near- 
ly 21,110.  The  next  year,  including  the  membership  trans- 
ferred from  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  the  number  report- 
ed was  2G,092.  In  1SG9  the  membership  reported  was  33,310. 
The  next  year,  after  the  transfer  of  other  territory,  the  mem- 
bership was  46,250.  During  the  next  two  decades,  before  any 
other  change  in  boundaries  was  made,  the  membership  was 
nearly  doubled,  the  number  reported  in  1889  being  92,242.  Aft- 
er the  formation  of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference,  in 
1890,  the  North  Carolina  Conference  was  left  with  52,S95  mem- 
bers. After  twenty-five  years  the  Conference  has  now  nearly 
as  large  a  membership  as  it  had  before  the  formation  of  the 
Western  North  Carolina  Conference,  the  number  reported  in 
1915  being  89,704. 

The  figures  given  in  the  above  paragraph  include  only  white 
members.  The  number  of  colored  members  first  reported  in 
1837  was  3,666.  The  colored  membership  continued  to  grow 
until  1860,  when  the  number  reported  was  12,043.  After  that 
year  there  was  a  decline  in  colored  membership  from  year  to 
year  until  1897,  when  the  number  reported  was  23.  Since  then 
there  has  been  no  colored  membership  reported. 

During  the  seventy-nine  years  of  its  history  there  have  been 
thirty-one  bishops  to  preside  over  the  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence.  Three  of  these  have  held  seven  sessions  each — viz.,  Bish- 


History  of  Methodism. 


ops  Andrew,  Pierce,  and  Wilson.  Bishop  Keener  lias  held  six; 
Bishop  Paine,  five;  Bishops  Morris  and  Early,  four  each;  Bish- 
ops Capers  and  Hargrove,  three  each.  The  following  have  held 
two  each:  Bishops  Wightman,  Kavanaugh,  Granbery,  Gallo- 
way, Duncan,  Hendrix,  and  Candler.  These  have  held  one 
each  :  Bishops  Wangh,  Soule,  Marvin,  McTyeire,  Parker,  Key, 
Fitzgerald,  Morrison,  Smith,  Hoss,  Denny,  McCoy,  Water- 
house,  and  Kilgo.  On  two  occasions  no  bishop  was  present, 
and  a  member  of  the  Conference  was  elected  President.  Tn 
1841  Rev.  Moses  Brock  was  elected  President,  and  in  1864  Rev. 
D.  B.  Nicholson. 

The  Conference  lias  had  eleven  Secretaries.  Hezekiah  G. 
Leigh  served  three  years ;  S.  S.  Bryant,  eight  years ;  C.  F.  Deems, 
three  years;  I.  T.  Wyche,  six  years;  W.  E.  Pell,  five  years;  J. 
W.  Lewis,  fouryears;  B.  Craven,  sixteen  years;  A.  W.  Mangnm, 
one  year;  D.  W.  Bain,  nine  years;  W.  L.  Cnninggim,  nineteen 
years;  B.  H.  Willis,  five  years. 

The  names  of  T.  X.  Ivey,  editor  of  the  Nashville  Christian 
Advocate,  L.  S.  Massey,  editor  of  the  Raleigh  Christian  Ad- 
vocate, T.  M.  Plyler,  J.  E.  Underwood,  M.  Bradshaw,  N.  E. 
Coltrane,  G.  T.  Adams,  J.  H.  Hall,  J.  L.  Cuninggim,  E.  Mc 
Whorter,  and  J.  M.  Cnlbreth  are  amongst  those  of  the  members 
of  the  Conference  who  have  been  active  and  representative  in 
Conference  and  connectional  work. 

Western  North  Carolina  Conference. 

The  Western  North  Carolina  Conference  was  authorized  and 
established  by  the  General  Conference  at  St.  Louis  in  1890  and 
embraces  all  the  territory  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina  west 
of  the  eastern  boundary  lines  of  Rockingham,  Guilford,  Ran- 
dolph, Stanley,  and  Anson  Counties.  This  territory  was  origi- 
nally in  the  North  Carolina  and  Holston  Conferences. 

The  first  session  of  this  new  Conference  was  held  in  Concord, 
N.  C,  in  December,  1890,  by  Bishop  Keener,  and  the  bishops 
who  have  presided  over  the  Conference  since  have  been:  Gallo- 
way, Hendrix,  Duncan,  Wilson,  Key,  Fitzgerald,  Morrison, 
Hargrove,  Smith,  Atkins,  Denny,  McCoy,  Waterhouse,  and 
Lambuth.  Bishop  Kilgo  has  been  assigned  to  hold  the  session 
of  1916. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


391 


Charles  G.  Montgomery,  of  Concord,  was  Secretary  of  the 
first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  sessions  of  the  Conference,  but 
in  1894  William  L.  Sherrill  was  elected  Secretary  and  has  been 
reelected  to  this  position  at  every  session  since. 

The  Conference  has  grown  steadily  since  its  organization,  in 
1890.  There  were  130  pastoral  charges  and  56,524  members; 
now  it  has  235  charges  and  100,503  members.  In  1890  there 
were  38,188  Sunday  school  scholars;  now  there  are  87,882 
scholars.  In  1890  no  Epworth  Leagues  were  reported ;  now  the 
Leagues  are  numerous  and  prosperous.  In  1890  its  Church 
property  was  valued  at  $678,380;  now  it  is  worth  $3,068,160. 
In  1890  there  was  raised  for  the  support  of  preachers  in  charge 
and  presiding  elders  $73,341;  in  1915  $211,791  was  raised  for 
these.  In  1890  the  total  money  raised  for  all  purposes  was 
1160,692;  in  1915  the  total  was  $577,499  for  all  purposes. 
Among  the  prominent  preachers  and  active  Conference  leaders 
during  this  period  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  John  R.  Brooks,  long 
a  presiding  elder  and  author  of  "Scriptural  Holiness" ;  Dr.  H. 
T.  Hudson,  author  of  "Methodist  Armor" ;  W.  L.  Grissom,  au- 
thor of  "History  of  Methodism  in  North  Carolina."  Dr.  G.  H. 
Detwiler  and  W.  S.  Creasy  were  great  gospel  preachers.  All  of 
these  have  passed  to  their  reward. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Weaver,  Dr.  T.  F.  Marr,  Dr.  W.  W.  Bays,  Dr. 
Charles  W.  Byrd,  Dr.  S.  B.  Turrentine,  Dr.  J.  R.  Scroggs,  Dr. 
P.  T.  Durham,  Dr.  G.  T.  Rowe,  and  Dr.  H.  M.  Blair,  who  for 
fifteen  years  has  been  the  efficient  editor  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina Christian  Advocate  and  in  this  capacity  has  rendered  to 
the  Church  and  Conference  invaluable  service,  are  amongst  the 
living  leaders  of  the  Conference. 

Amongst  the  laymen  who  have  been  prominent  in  service  and 
leadership  during  these  years  are:  J.  S.  Martin  (deceased),  J. 
A.  Odell,  W.  R.  Odell,  D.  B.  Coltrane,  F.  S.  Lambeth,  H.  G. 
Chatham,  C.  H.  Ireland,  D.  Matt  Thompson^  J.  L.  Nelson,  F. 
M.  Weaver,  Dr.  W.  G.  Bradshaw  (deceased),  Dred  Peacock, 
and  W.  D.  Turner. 

Holston  Conference. 

The  first  circuit  in  the  Holston  country  was  organized  in 
1783,  with  a  membership  of  sixty.    In  1802  the  Holston  terri- 


302 


History  of  Methodism. 


tory,  comprising  a  district  of  six  circuits,  with  a  membership 
of  2,980,  fell  into  the  Western  Conference.  When  the  Western 
was  divided  in  1812,  the  Holston  District,  with  nine  circuits  and 
a  membership  of  6,335,  fell  into  the  Tennessee  Conference. 

The  first  Conference  west  of  the  Appalachians  was  held  at 
Keywood's,  in  Washington  County,  Ya.,  May  13-15,  1788,  Bish- 
op Asbury  presiding.  Recently  a  tablet  commemorating  this 
event  was  unveiled  on  the  site  of  the  Keywood  house. 

In  1824  the  Holston  Conference  was  organized,  with  three 
districts,  twenty-six  circuits,  and  a  membership  of  14,034.  The 
first  session  met  in  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  with  Bishop  Roberts  pre- 
siding and  John  Tevis  at  the  Secretary's  table.  During  the 
ninety-two  years  the  Presidents  have  been :  Bishops  Roberts, 
Soule,  McKendree,  Hedding,  Emory,  Andrew,  Capers,  Morris, 
Waugh,  Paine,  Pierce,  Early,  MeTyeire,  WTightman,  Doggett, 
Kavanaugh,  Keener,  Wilson,  Hargrove,  Galloway,  Fitzgerald, 
Duncan,  Granbery,  Key,  Hendrix,  Morrison,  Hoss,  Smith,  Can- 
dler, Kilgo,  Denny,  Waterhouse,  and  Murrah.  In  1834  John 
Henninger  was  elected  President  in  the  absence  of  a  bishop, 
and  in  1841  Samuel  Patton  was  likewise  elected.  The  Secre- 
taries have  been:  John  Tevis,  Thomas  Stringfield,  Elbert  P. 
Sevier,  L.  S.  Marshall,  D.  R.  McAnally,  C.  D.  Smith,  W.  C. 
Graves,  J.  X.  Huffaker,  1).  Sullins,  J.  H.  Brunner,  E.  E.  Wiley, 
R.  X.  Price,  F.  Richardson,  B.  W.  S.  Bishop,  W.  C.  Garden, 
and  J.  A.  Burrow. 

The  first  session  of  the  Holston  Conference,  after  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  held  in 
Athens,  Tenn.,  beginning  October  8,  1845,  with  Bishop  Andrew 
presiding.  The  Conference  passed  resolutions,  adhering  to  the 
Southern  division  of  the  Church,  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  the  Plan  of  Separation  adopted  by  t lie  General 
Conference  in  New  York  in  May,  1844.  During  the  War  be- 
tween the  States  the  Federal  armies  took  possession  of  East 
Tennessee.  Societies  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  wrere 
organized.  The  General  Conference  of  1864  provided  for  the 
organization  of  a  Northern  Holston  Conference,  the  first  ses- 
sion of  which  was  held  at  Athens,  Tenn.,  in  1865. 

The  Holston  Conference.  Methodist  Episcopal  Chnrch,  South, 
lost  two  presiding  elders'  districts  by  the  action  of  our  General 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


393 


Conference  of  1888,  forming  the  Western  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference, into  which  fell  the  Asheville  and  Franklin  Districts. 
In  the  details  of  the  history  of  Holston  Methodism  it  will  ap- 
pear that  the  Conference  has  at  one  time  or  another  embraced 
Southwestern  Virginia  west  of  New  River,  including  two  coun- 
ties of  what  is  now  West  Virginia,  the  whole  of  East  Tennessee, 
Western  North  Carolina  west  of  Blue  Ridge,  together  with  a 
portion  of  McDowell  County  east  of  it,  and  small  portions  of 
Upper  South  Carolina  and  North  Georgia.  The  Conference  at 
the  present  time  includes  only  Southwestern  Virginia  and  East 
Tennessee,  with  a  part  of  Dade  County,  Ga.,  and  of  Mercer  and 
McDowell  Counties,  W.  Va.  If  the  question  is  asked,  "How 
did  Methodism  get  into  this  country?"  the  answer  is,  "By  em- 
igration." On  the  tides  of  emigration,  which  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  flowed  to  this  high  and  healthful  region,  came 
local  preachers,  exhorters,  and  private  men  of  the  Methodist 
Societies.  Emigrants  came  mainly  from  Maryland,  Eastern 
and  Central  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  From  the  arrival 
of  the  first  missionaries  in  America,  in  1770,  Methodist  preach- 
ers had  been  very  active  and  successful  in  the  section  from 
which  the  principal  emigration  flowed  to  the  Holston  country. 
The  importance  of  Holston  Methodist  history  can  be  under- 
stood only  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  Holston  country 
was  the  gateway  to  the  West  and  Southwest ;  that  from  these 
heights  Methodist  gospel  light  radiated  to  the  "dark  and 
bloody  ground"  of  Kentucky,  the  fertile  plains  of  Ohio,  the 
great  Northwest,  the  broad  and  beautiful  savannas  of  the 
Southwest.  It  was  four  years  after  the  Holston  territory  was 
set  off  as  a  separate  circuit  before  Methodist  missionaries  found 
their  way  into  the  Cumberland  country,  now  Middle  Tennes- 
see. 

The  Holston  Conference  from  the  beginning  has  been  famous 
for  strong  preachers  and  extensive  revivals.  Timothy  and 
David  Sullins,  E.  C.  Wexler,  R.  N.  Price,  Frank  Richardson, 
and  many  others,  preached  a  strong  and  pure  gospel,  and  the 
old-time  religion  showed  itself  in  loud  shouting.  Wexler  was 
a  man  of  superior  ability,  and  when  Gen.  John  B.  Floyd  was  on 
his  deathbed  he  sent  for  Brother  Wexler.  William  E.  Munsey 
was  a  Holston  man  and  an  extraordinary  preacher.  Bishop 


394 


History  of  Methodism. 


Keener,  bearing  him  unfavorably  mentioned  by  some  young 
preachers,  quieted  them  by  saying:  "If  William  E.  Munsey  was 
not  a  great  man,  we  never  had  a  great  man."  W.  G.  E.  Cun- 
nyngham  was  a  Holston  man,  and  he  had  the  faculty  of  suc- 
ceeding in  everything  he  undertook.  D.  R.  McAnally  was  a 
Holston  man.  Thomas  Stringfield,  the  first  editor  of  the  Nash- 
ville Christian  Advocate,  was  a  Holston  man,  and  as  preacher 
and  editor  he  had  few  equals.  The  mountain  country  of  Hol- 
ston has  given  to  the  world  much  oratory.  Landon  C.  Haynes 
and  Robert  L.  Taylor,  in  the  matter  of  charming  speech,  were1 
much  beyond  the  average.  Haynes  went  from  the  Methodist  pul- 
pit into  politics,  while  Taylor's  father  (N.  G.  Taylor  )  was  both 
an  eminent  Methodist  preacher  and  a  Congressman. 

Prominent  among  the  men  of  Holston  history  have  been  : 
James  Axley,  George  Ekin,  Thomas  Wilkerson,  John  Hen- 
ninger,  Charles  Collins,  Thomas  Stringfield,  Creed  Fulton, 
Samuel  Patton,  Elbert  F.  Sevier,  William  G.  Brownlow, 
Thomas  K.  Catlett,  Rufus  M.  Stevens,  John  M.  McTeer,  Wil- 
liam E.  Munsey,  E.  E.  Wiley,  John  H.  Brunner,  George  C.  Ran- 
kin, and  Frank  Richardson.  Among  those  still  living  are:  Dr. 
R.  N.  Price,  Dr.  David  Sullins,  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  Bishop 
James  Atkins,  and  Bishop  R.  G.  Waterhouse. 

Modern  leaders  in  the  Conference  are  as  follows:  James  A. 
Burrow,  I.  P.  Martin,  J.  WT.  Perry,  E.  A.  Shugart,  P.  L.  Cobb, 
S.  B.  Vaught,  E.  H.  Cassidy,  T.  J.  Eskridge,  George  R.  Stuart, 
J.  A.  Baylor,  T.  C.  Schuler,  J.  C.  Orr,  W.  S.  Neighbors;  and 
amongst  the  laymen,  E.  C.  Reeves,  F.  A.  Carter,  Isaac  Harr, 
J.  Milton  Browne,  Creed  P.  Bates,  H.  C.  Stuart,  G.  L.  Hard 
wicke,  and  J.  W.  Savior. 

The  Holston  Conference  at  this  writing  (September,  191 G) 
has  lost  by  death  lf>9  preachers.  It  now  has  20G  local  preach- 
ers, 242  traveling  preachers  (including  the  worn-out  list),  31 
undergraduates,  and  35  supplies;  81,470  members,  850  classes, 
213  pastoral  charges,  and  171  parsonages. 

Kentucky  Conference. 

In  May,  1788,  at  Keywood,  Va.,  Bishop  Asbury  held  the  first 
Conference  to  meet  in  the  vast  region  known  as  the  Mississippi 
Valley.   In  May,  1790,  at  Masterson's  Station,  not  far  from  Lex- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


ington,  Ky.,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  present  Kentucky  Confer 
ence,  he  held  the  first  Conference  to  meet  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains.  Trior  to  1812  this  old  Western  Conference  (the 
mother  of  Conferences)  embraced  a  vast  territory,  including 
what  is  now  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mis 
souri,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi.  The  General  Con- 
ference of  1812  divided  this  great  field  into  two  Conferences,  the 
Ohio  and  the  Tennessee,  the  dividing  line  splitting  the  State 
of  Kentucky  into  two.  The  General  Conference  of  1820  created 
the  Kentucky  Conference,  consisting  of  the  State  of  Kentucky, 
a  part  of  West  Virginia,  and  a  small  portion  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee.  In  this  territory  there  were  then  20,666  white  and 
2,750  colored  members.  In  this  same  territory  there  are  now 
approximately  150,000  Methodists.  The  Louisville  Conference 
was  carved  out  of  the  original  territory  of  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference in  1846.  The  Kentucky  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  now  numbering  about  24,000,  was  organized 
in  1853.  The  Paducah  District,  of  the  Memphis  Conference, 
and  the  Ashland  and  Huntington  Districts,  of  the  Western 
Virginia  Conference,  were  originally  parts  of  this  Conference. 

Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree  often  presided  over  the  old 
Western  Conference.  Bishop  Asbury  died  before  the  Kentucky 
Conference  was  established.  Bishop  McKendree  was  often  pres- 
ent at  its  sessions  and  was  frequently  in  the  chair,  though  his 
name  never  was  appended  to  the  minutes  as  President.  In  this 
connection  the  name  of  Bishop  R.  R.  Roberts  appears  ten  times ; 
Bishops  Soule  and  Kavanaugh,  each,  seven  times ;  Bishop  Hen- 
drix,  six  times;  Bishops  Andrew,  Paine,  McTyeire,  and  Wil- 
son, each,  five  times;  Bishops  Pierce  and  Keener,  each,  four 
times;  Bishops  George,  Capers,  and  Early,  each,  three  times; 
Bishops  Waugh,  Morris,  Doggett,  Wightman,  Granbery,  Har- 
grove, Morrison,  Candler,  and  Kilgo,  each,  twice;  and  Bish- 
ops Hedding,  Emory,  Janes,  Marvin,  Galloway,  Duncan,  Hay 
good,  Key,  Smith,  Hoss,  McCoy,  and  Atkins,  each,  once. 

The  following-named  Secretaries  have  served  the  Conference 
since  its  first  session,  in  1821 :  William  Adams,  thirteen  years; 
Richard  D.  Neale,  one  year ;  William  Phillips,  one  year ;  George 
McNeilly,  three  years ;  T.  N.  Ralston,  eleven  years ;  George  W. 
Smiley,  two  years;  J.  H.  D.  Corwine,  one  year;  Daniel  Steven- 


39G 


History  of  Methodism. 


son,  ten  years;  T.  F.  Vanmeter,  twenty-two  years;  George  B. 
Savage,  two  years;  J.  H.  Young,  two  years;  J.  Reeves,  eight 
years;  F.  S.  Pollitt,  five  years;  J.  L.  Clark,  six  years;  W.  E. 
Arnold,  eight  years. 

Among  the  leaders  of  the  Conference  dating  back  to  the  be- 
ginning, William  McKendree,  Thomas  A.  Morris,  H.  B.  Bascom, 
and  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  have  been  made  bishops.  Francis  Poy- 
thress,  William  Burke,  Jesse  Walker,  Peter  Cartwright,  Jona- 
than Stamper,  B.  T.  Crouch,  and  others  were  great  presiding 
elders.  As  educators,  Martin  Ruter,  Peter  Akers,  Joseph  8. 
Tomlinson,  and  T.  J.  Dodd  were  unsurpassed.  T.  N.  Ralston 
was  the  equal  of  any  theologian  of  his  day.  Benjamin  M.  Drake 
and  William  Winans  both  began  their  ministry  in  the  Kentucky 
Conference.  Among  the  later  leaders,  0.  W.  Miller,  Robert 
Hiner,  H.  P.  Walker,  J.  W.  Fitch,  W.  F.  Taylor,  W.  E.  Arnold, 

E.  G.  B.  Mann,  E.  L.  Southgate,  J.  D.  Redd,  C.  H.  Greer,  G.  W. 
Crutchfield,  B.  C.  Horton,  C.  K.  Dickey,  J.  O.  A.  Vaught,  and 

F.  K.  Struve  are  each  worthy  of  a  place.  Among  the  mission- 
aries are:  Littleton  Fowler,  L.  B.  Stateler,  Fountain  E.  Pitts, 
Charles  Taylor,  C.  F.  Reid,  and  J.  C.  C.  Newton. 

Kentucky  has  been  a  battle  ground  of  the  centuries.  Before 
the  coming  of  the  white  man,  it  was  the  borderland  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  Indian  tribes.  Neither  could  occupy  it 
as  a  home,  but  here  they  engaged  in  many  a  bloody  fray.  From 
its  location,  the  State  was  compelled  to  act  as  a  buffer  for  the 
North  and  South  during  the  War  between  the  States.  At  no 
point  was  this  conflict  more  truly  fratricidal.  Religiously, 
it  has  likewise  been  a  battle  ground.  In  no  part  of  our  coun- 
try have  the  issues  between  Calvinism  and  Arminianism  been 
more  vehemently  argued  than  here.  This  is  the  field  upon  which 
the  Immersionists,  Baptists,  and  Campbellites  have  waged 
their  incessant  warfare.  When  American  Methodism  was  di- 
vided, in  1844,  Kentucky  was  affected  as  few  other  States;  and 
the  stand  made  by  Kentucky  Methodists  saved  the  South  much 
territory  and  many  members.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1S65, 
eighteen  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Kentucky  Conference 
located,  went  into  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  dividing  nearly  every  Church  of  considerable  strength 
in  the  Conference. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


397 


South  Carolina  Conference. 

South  Carolina  was  one  of  the  six  original  Conferences  first 
formally  named  and  set  apart  in  1796.  The  territory  included 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  the  remainder  of  North  Caro- 
lina not  included  in  the  Virginia  Conference,  which  was  that 
portion  south  of  the  Cape  Fear  River  and  that  situated  on  the 
branches  of  the  Yadkin. 

Methodism,  however,  existed  in  the  State  long  prior  to  this. 
The  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  visited  and  preached  in  Charles- 
ton as  early  as  1736.  Francis  Asbury  came  into  the  State  on 
his  first  episcopal  tour  in  1785,  again  in  1786,  and  with  Bishop 
Coke  held  the  first  session  of  the  Conference  in  Charleston 
March  22,  1787,  nine  years  before  the  Conference  was  formally 
established  by  General  Conference  action. 

Beginning  with  the  Conference  session  in  1787,  Asbury  held 
— with  the  exception  of  the  Conference  in  17C8,  when  he  was 
unable  to  be  present  on  account  of  illness — twenty-nine  con- 
secutive sessions  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  and  usually 
spent  from  three  weeks  to  a  month  within  the  State.  Bishop 
Coke  was  associated  with  Bishop  Asbury  in  five  sessions  of 
the  South  Carolina  Conference,  Bishop  Whatcoat  in  three,  and 
Bishop  McKendree  in  seven. 

Besides  the  seven  sessions  associated  with  Asbury,  Bishop 
McKendree  presided  over  six  sessions,  Bishop  George  being 
associated  in  two  and  Bishops  Roberts  and  Soule  in  one. 
Bishop  Roberts  presided  over  three  sessions  in  addition  to  the 
one  with  McKendree  and  Soule.  Bishop  George  presided  over 
three  sessions  in  addition  to  the  two  with  McKendree.  Bishop 
Joshua  Soule  presided  over  five  sessions  besides  the  two  with 
McKendree  and  Roberts.  Bishop  Elijah  Hedding  presided  over 
one  session ;  Bishop  J.  O.  Andrew,  over  eleven,  besides  one  with 
Bishop  Emory;  Bishop  Beverly  Waugh  presided  over  one; 
Bishop  Thomas  A.  Morris,  two ;  Bishop  William  Capers,  three ; 
Bishop  Robert  Paine,  six;  Bishop  G.  F.  Pierce,  six;  Bishop 
John  Early,  three;  Bishop  William  M.  Wightman,  four;  Bishop 
1).  S.  Doggett,  two;  Bishop  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  two;  Bishop  H. 
N.  McTyeire,  four;  Bishop  E.  M.  Marvin,  one;  Bishop  John  C. 
Keener,  five;  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  five,  besides  one  with  Bish- 


:i98  History  of  Methodism. 


op  Collins  Denny;  Bishop  John  C.  Granbery,  three;  Bishop  YV. 
\V.  Duncan,  four;  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  two;  Bishop  K.  K. 
Hargrove,  two;  Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  two;  Bishop  J.  S.  Key, 
one;  Bishop  A.  Coke  Smith,  one;  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  one; 
Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison,  one;  Bishop  John  C.  Kilgo,  two;  and 
Bishop  Collins  Denny,  two,  besides  one  with  Bishop  Wilson. 
Four  Presidents  have  been  elected  in  the  absence  of  a  bishop 
— viz.:  Jonathan  Jackson,  YY.  M.  Kennedy,  Malcolm  McPher- 
son,  and  A.  M.  Shipp. 

The  Secretary  of  the  first  twelve  sessions  is  unknown.  Since 
1799  the  following  have  served  as  Secretary:  Jesse  Ixje,  two 
years;  J.  Norman,  one:  N.  Snethen,  three;  John  MeVean,  one; 
James  Hill,  one;  Lewis  Myers,  two;  W.  M.  Kennedy,  four;  A. 
Tally,  three;  S.  K.  Hodges,  four;  John  Howard,  one;  S.  YY. 
Capers,  ore;  W.  M.  Wightman,  eight;  William  Capers,  one;  J. 
H.  Wheeler,  five;  P.  A.  M.  Williams,  thirteen  ;  F.  A.  Mood,  ten; 
F.  M.  Kennedy,  four;  W.  C.  Power,  fifteen;  H.  F.  Chreitzberg, 
six;  and  E.  O.  Watson,  the  present  Secretary,  twenty-three. 

Minor  changes  in  the  boundary  were  made  in  1804,  1812,  and 
1824.  In  1830  Georgia  was  set  off  as  a  separate  Conference. 
Slight  changes  affecting  the  North  Carolina  territory  were 
made  in  1832,  183G,  and  1850.  In  1870  the  South  Carolina  Con- 
ference was  made  to  include  only  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 
In  1914  the  State  was  divided  into  two  Conferences  by  a  line 
running  from  east  to  west,  practically  dividing  the  State 
equally  as  to  territory,  membership,  churches,  and  financial 
strength,  leaving  six  districts  in  the  upper  portion  of  the 
State  to  be  called  the  "Upper  South  Carolina  Conference'* 
and  six  districts  in  the  lower  portion  retaining  the  original 
name,  historical  records,  chronological  roll,  and  session  num- 
ber. Under  a  plan  of  division  adopted  by  the  Conference  be- 
fore division,  the  colleges,  schools,  the  one  orphanage,  and  the 
Southern  Christian  Advocate  are  owned  and  managed  jointly 
by  the  two  Conferences. 

The  reports  rendered  at  the  last  session  of  the  Conference 
covering  the  whole  State  (1914)  showed  200  pastoral  charges, 
with  224  parsonages,  valued  at  8001,505;  830  Church  organiza- 
tions, with  786  church  buildings,  valued  at  S2.057.039;  707 
Pnnday  schools,  nearly  one  for  every  Church,  with  an  enroll- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


399 


ment  of  S4,41G.  More  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  was 
raised  for  pastoral  support  and  some  $05,000  for  missions  and 
Church  extension. 

The  schools,  colleges,  and  orphanage  now  operated  and 
owned  by  Methodism  in  South  Carolina  are,  in  the  order  of 
their  establishment:  Cokesbury  Conference  School,  begun  as 
Tabernacle  under  Stephen  Olin  in  1821;  Wofford,  at  Spartan- 
burg, established  in  1854;  Columbia  College,  Columbia,  S.  C, 
1859;  Lander  College,  founded  at  Williamston  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Lander  in  1873,  removed  to  Greenwood,  and  received  by  the 
Conference  in  1904;  Wofford  Pitting  School,  at  Spartanburg, 
1887;  Carlisle  School  for  Boys  and  Girls,  Bamberg,  S.  C,  1893; 
Epworth  Orphanage,  Columbia,  S.  C.,  1894 ;  Textile  Industrial 
School,  Spartanburg,  S.  C,  founded  by  Kev.  D.  E.  Camak  in 
1911  for  the  young  men  and  women  of  the  cotton  mills;  Horry 
Industrial  School,  Horry  County,  near  Conway,  S.  C,  founded 
by  Dr.  E.  O.  Watson  for  poor  boys  and  girls  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts in  1913  and  received  by  the  Conference  as  a  mission 
school  in  1915.  These  institutions  have  a  property  valuation  of 
11,000,000,  an  endowment  of  a  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
million  dollars,  eighty  teachers,  and  thirteen  hundred  students. 

Steady  progress  has  characterized  all  the  work  of  Methodism 
through  the  years.  South  Carolina  has  been  foremost  in  many 
things,  never  laggard  in  anything.  The  salaries  paid  for  pas- 
toral support  have  steadily  increased,  markedly  so  within  the 
last  decade;  and  wrhile  no  unusually  large  salaries  are  paid, 
the  average  is  very  near  a  living  wage,  and  few  salaries  are 
now  below  it.  The  rule  of  the  Conference  is:  A  comfortable, 
well-furnished  home  for  every  pastor  and  presiding  elder.  An 
era  of  church-  and  parsonage-building  has  been  on,  especially 
during  the  last  decade,  and  Methodism  now  rejoices  in  many 
beautiful  churches  and  elegant  parsonage  homes. 

The  Conference  has  been  blessed  with  great  leaders,  preach- 
ers and  laymen,  of  consecrated  ability.  Dr.  James  H.  Car- 
lisle, for  fifty-five  years  with  Wofford  College,  by  common  con- 
sent recognized  as  the  greatest  teacher  of  the  South  and  fore- 
most layman  of  the  Church,  contributed  largely  to  the  best 
things  in  the  State,  and  his  influence  lingers  as  a  blessed  bene- 
diction.    Dr.  Henry  Nelson  Snyder,  President  of  Wofford,  is 


400 


History  of  Methodism. 


a  worthy  successor,  who  not  only  maintains  the  ideals  of  Wof- 
ford,  but  advances  the  standard  and  improves  the  equipment 
of  that  great  institution.  Bishops  William  Capers,  William 
M.  Wightman,  William  Wallace  Duncan,  and  A.  Coke  Smith, 
men  of  rare  character  and  power  in  their  Conference  before 
their  election  to  the  episcopacy,  added  honor  to  South  Carolina 
in  the  high  service  rendered  by  them  throughout  the  Church. 
Bishop  John  C.  Kilgo — born  in  a  South  Carolina  Methodist 
parsonage,  a  leader  while  laboring  in  South  Carolina,  the  in- 
strument in  the  hands  of  God,  when  transferred  to  North  Caro- 
lina, in  securing  a  great  equipment  for  Trinity  College — and 
Bishop  E.  D.  Mouzon  are  South  Carolina  men  now  serving  the 
Church  in  the  episcopacy. 

Beginning  with  Dr.  Charles  Taylor  and  Benjamin  Jenkins, 
the  first  Southern  Methodist  missionaries  to  China,  forty-one 
have  gone  forth  from  the  South  Carolina  Conference  to  labor 
in  foreign  fields. 

A  full  list  of  those  who  as  leaders  have  spent  themselves 
within  the  bounds  of  South  Carolina  or  are  now  laboring  faith- 
fully and  efficiently  for  the  building  of  the  kingdom  cannot 
be  given  here.  There  were  many  great  names  in  the  past;  there 
are  many  in  the  present.  God  wrought  mightily  through  those 
who  have  gone  before  and  is  working  through  those  who  live 
to-day.  The  division  of  the  State  into  two  Conferences  was 
without  schism,  but  for  the  better  prosecution  of  the  rapidly 
growing  work.  In  generous  rivalry  the  two  Conferences  are 
carrying  on  the  work,  it  is  hoped  and  believed,  with  larger  pos- 
sibilities than  ever  before. 

Upper  South  Carolina  Conference. 

The  beginnings  of  Methodism  in  South  Carolina  date  back  to 
the  early  days.  It  was  at  the  close  of  the  Christmas  Confer- 
ence, at  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  1784,  that  Francis  Asbury,  Jesse 
Lee,  and  Henry  Willis  set  out  for  Charleston,  S.  C.  They 
arrived  at  Georgetown  February  2.°>,  1875.  Here  Asbury 
preached,  and  the  Word  brought  forth  fruit.  The  next  day  they 
continued  their  journey  toward  Charleston.  Reaching  that 
city,  Asbury's  first  sermon  there  was  on  March  2.  At  the  end 
of  that  year  the  record  shows  ;i  membership  of  thirty-five  whites 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


401 


and  twenty-three  colored  and  that  the  preachers  had  received 
$425  for  their  support. 

The  first  session  of  the  South  Carolina  Annual  Conference 
was  held  in  Charleston  March  22,  1787,  presided  over  by  Coke 
and  Asbury.  The  statistical  reports  rendered  at  that  Confer- 
ence show  a  membership  of  2,075  whites  and  141  colored. 

At  the  session  of  the  Conference  held  at  Columbia,  S.  C, 
January  27,  1830,  Joshua  Soule  presiding,  the  Georgia  Confer- 
ence was  set  off.  The  reports  for  that  year  show  a  membership 
of  40,335  whites  and  24,554  colored. 

At  the  Conference  held  at  Cheraw,  S.  C,  December  15,  18G9, 
H.  H.  Kavanaugh  presiding,  a  large  section  in  the  State  of 
North  Carolina  was  transferred  to  the  South  Carolina  Annual 
Conference.  The  records  indicate  that  the  membership  had 
increased  to  42,926  whites,  while  only  1,536  colored  members 
were  reported.  From  1870  to  1914  the  South  Carolina  Annual 
Conference  included  all  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 

The  Upper  South  Carolina  Annual  Conference  is  the  young- 
est of  all  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  our  Southern  Method- 
ism. As  its  name  indicates,  it  includes  only  the  upper  half  of 
the  State,  the  Piedmont  section. 

For  many  years  there  had  been  a  minority  sentiment  in  favor 
*»f  division.  The  first  definite  and  successful  effort  toward  di- 
vision was  made  at  the  session  of  the  South  Carolina  Annual 
Conference  held  at  Rock  Hill,  S.  C,  November  26  to  December  1, 
1913.  At  that  Conference  resolutions  were  offered  favoring  the 
division  of  the  Conference  into  two  bodies.  These  resolutions 
were  adopted  by  a  vote  of  123  to  80.  A  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  a  memorial  to  the  General  Conference  pray- 
ing that  the  division  be  made.  The  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  which  met  in  Oklahoma 
City,  Oida.,  in  May,  1914,  acted  favorably  on  the  memorial  and 
"made  it  the  duty  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference  at  its  next 
session  to  fix  the  line  of  division  so  as  to  make  two  Confer- 
ences in  the  State  of  South  Carolina."  At  the  session  of  the 
South  Carolina  Annual  Conference  held  at  Sumter,  S.  C,  in 
November,  1914,  after  full  discussion,  the  line  of  division  was 
fixed  by  a  vote  of  174  to  80. 

The  first  session  of  the  Upper  South  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
26 


402 


History  of  Methodism. 


fereuce  was  held  in  Bethel  Methodist  Church,  Spartanburg,  S. 
C,  November  24-29,  1915.  The  organization  was  as  follows: 
Bishop  Collins  Denny,  President;  P.  B.  Wells,  Secretary;  W. 
J.  Snyder,  Assistant  Secretary;  R.  E.  Turnipseed,  Statistical 
Secretary;  J.  R.  T.  Major,  Assistant  Statistical  Secretary;  S. 
O.  Cantey,  Assistant  Statistical  Secretary;  R.  E.  Sharp,  As- 
sistant Statistical  Secretary;  Legal  Conference,  J.  C.  Roper, 
President;  Conference  Brotherhood,  John  O.  Willson,  Presi- 
dent; Historical  Society,  M.  L.  Carlisle,  President;  Board  of 
Education,  E.  T.  Hodges,  President;  Board  of  Missions,  J.  W. 
Speake,  President ;  Board  of  Church  Extension,  A.  N.  Brunson, 
President;  Sunday  School  Board,  L.  F.  Beaty,  President;  Ep- 
worth  League  Board,  J.  C.  Smith  (a  layman),  President;  Bi- 
ble Society  Board,  E.  Z.  James,  President;  Minute  Board,  D. 
W.  Keller,  President;  Joint  Board  of  Finance,  L.  P.  McGee, 
President.  The  following  are  the  presiding  elders :  T.  C.  O'Dell, 
W.  I.  Herbert,  J.  W.  Kilgo,  M.  L.  Carlisle,  P.  B.  Wells,  and  R. 
E.  Stackhouse. 

Among  the  leaders  of  the  Conference,  the  following  may  be 
mentioned:  John  O.  Willson,  P.  B.  Wells,  L.  F.  Beaty,  M.  L. 
Carlisle,  J.  W.  Kilgo,  P.  F.  Kilgo,  R.  E.  Stackhouse,  W.  I. 
Herbert,  T.  C.  O'Dell,  J.  R.  T.  Major,  J.  C.  Roper,  E.  T.  Hodges, 
J.  B.  Traywick,  E.  S.  Jones,  L.  P.  McGee,  R.  E.  Turnipseed, 
C.  C.  Herbert,  J.  W.  Speake,  A.  N.  Brunson,  and  W.  J.  Snyder. 

The  minutes  of  the  Conference  show  141  appointments,  not 
including  those  to  educational  institutions  and  connectional 
offices,  and  a  membership  of  51,000.  This  Conference  has  a 
great  future. 

Florida  Conference. 

The  memorable  General  Conference  of  1844  gave  authoriza- 
tion for  the  erection  of  a  number  of  new  Annual  Conferences, 
amongst  which  the  Florida  Conference  was  prominent.  Pre- 
vious to  that  time  its  territory  had  belonged  to  the  old  Geor- 
gia Conference,  divided  in  18G6  into  North  and  South  Geor- 
gia. The  original  charter  of  the  Florida  Conference,  as  found 
in  the  Journal  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  is  in  these 
words:  "The  Florida  Conference  shall  include  all  that  part  of 
the  State  of  Georgia  not  included  in  the  Georgia  Conference, 
and  East  and  Middle  Florida."    That  part  of  the  latter  State 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


403 


known  as  West  Florida — a  "panhandle"  running  along  the 
coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico — has  been  in  the  Alabama  Con- 
ference since  its  organization,  having  originally  constituted  a 
part  of  the  Mississippi  Conference. 

The  first  session  of  the  Florida  Conference  was  held  at  Tal- 
lahassee February  8,  1845,  Bishop  Joshua  Soule  presiding. 
The  new  jurisdiction  consisted  of  four  districts — the  Quincy, 
the  Tallahassee,  the  Newnansville,  and  the  St.  Mary's  Dis- 
tricts. Of  these,  Reuben  H.  Luckey,  Peyton  P.  Smith,  John 
W.  Yarbrough,  and  Thomas  Denning  were,  respectively,  the 
presiding  elders.  It  was  at  this  Conference  that  Simon  Peter 
Richardson  was  elected  and  ordained  an  elder.  His  appoint- 
ment for  the  year  was  St.  Augustine  Mission.  Seven  candi- 
dates were  received  on  trial  into  the  traveling  connection.  In 
this  list  appear  the  names  of  John  C.  Ley  and  N.  M.  Lowe, 
names  that  are  still  represented  on  the  roll  of  the  Conference. 

One  of  the  acts  of  this  initial  sitting  of  the  Florida  Confer- 
ence was  to  pass  upon  the  Plan  of  Separation  sent  down  from 
the  General  Conference  of  1844.  This  plan  was  discussed  in  a 
spirited  and  interested  way  and  was  promptly  and  fully  in- 
dorsed, after  which  the  Conference  selected  a  delegation  to  sit 
in  the  Louisville  Convention.  This  convention  met  in  the  city 
of  Louisville  on  May  1,  1845,  and  formally  completed  the  di- 
vision of  the  Church  according  to  the  agreement  of  the  ma- 
jority of  delegates  in  the  General  Conference.  •  The  delegation 
of  the  Florida  Conference  which  sat  in  the  Louisville  Conven- 
tion consisted  of  but  two  members,  Peyton  P.  Smith  and  Thom- 
as C.  Penning. 

The  Florida  Conference  began  its  history  as  a  distinct  or- 
ganization with  about  seven  thousand  members  and  thirty-six 
pastoral  charges,  including  the  headship  of  the  districts.  The 
country  was  then  new  as  an  American  State  and  was  but  thin- 
ly populated.  It  is  only  since  the  War  between  the  States  that 
it  has  known  the  phenomenal  growth  which  has  brought  its 
lands  and  climate  to  the  wide  public  notice  which  has  made 
its  present  greatness.  But  Methodism,  being  early  upon  the 
field,  was  planted  in  advantageous  places  and  has  grown  with 
the  growth  of  the  country.  The  Minutes  of  1915  show  a  mem- 
bership of  38,329,  worshiping  in  338  churches,  valued  in  the 


404 


History  of  Methodism. 


tables  of  the  Conference  at  approximately  one  and  a  quarter 
million  dollars.  There  are  187  pastoral  appointments,  cov- 
ering every  available  part  of  the  territory  of  the  State — north, 
south,  east,  and  west.  The  organization  of  the  Conference  is 
excellent;  and  its  progress  in  all  departments  of  local  and 
connectional  work — as  Missions,  Education,  Sunday  School, 
and  Epworth  League — has  been  steady.  There  are  379  Sunday 
schools,  with  about  40,000  officers,  teachers,  and  members;  171 
Epworth  Leagues,  with  a  membership  of  about  0,000. 

During  its  history  the  Conference  has  had  but  eight  differ- 
ent Secretaries — namely :  T.  C.  Benning,  P.  P.  Smith,  N.  T. 
Gardner,  J.  C.  Ley,  F.  A.  Branch,  J.  D.  De  Pass,  U.  S.  Bird, 
and  Frederick  Pasco.  Dr.  Pasco  has  served  continuously  since 
1874,  a  period  of  forty-two  years  and  a  record  which  equals 
that  of  the  ancients.  All  the  older  bishops  and  many  of  the 
newer  panel  have  presided  over  the  body. 

The  Florida  Conference  delegates  in  recent  General  Confer- 
ences have  been:  Clerical — Ira  S.  Patterson,  L.  W.  Moore,  J. 
P.  Hilburn,  Smith  Harding,  W.  J.  Carpenter,  M.  H.  Norton, 
G.  S.  Roberts,  J.  F.  Bell,  J.  A.  Hendry,  and  J.  R.  Cason.  Lay— 
C.  E.  Brinkley,  L.  J.  Cooper,  F.  D.  Jackson,  B.  H.  Johnson, 
J.  W.  Pennington,  H.  D.  Bassett.  The  names  of  Fullwood, 
Anderson,  Householder,  Wilson,  Partridge,  Barnett,  Sweat, 
Thrower,  Williams,  and  many  others  are  well  known  in  con- 
nection with  this  southernmost  of  the  American  Conferences. 

South  Georgia  Conference. 

The  General  Conference  which  met  in  New  Orleans  in  May, 
1SGG,  authorized  the  division  of  the  Georgia  Conference;  and 
the  last  session  of  that  Conference  was  held  in  Americus, 
Ga.,  November  28,  1866,  Bishop  H.  X.  McTyeire  presiding.  At 
this  sitting  Caleb  W.  Key,  Samuel  Anthony,  and  W.  J.  Parks 
were  "appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  business  for  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Conference  in  reference  to  a  division."  This  com- 
mittee recommended  "that,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances 
and  the  general  good  of  the  Church,  the  division  should  take 
place."  After  much  discussion,  the  recommendation  was  adopt- 
ed by  a  vote  of  sixty-five  for  division  and  fifty-one  against  it. 

The  line  fixed  at  that  time  was  the  same  as  that  which  now 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


405 


exists  and  which  is  described  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  under 
the  subject,  "Boundaries  of  the  Annual  Conferences."  The 
names  chosen  for  the  two  Conferences  were  North  Georgia  and 
South  Georgia.  At  the  time  of  the  division  there  were  in  the 
Georgia  Conference  51,219  white  members  and  20,789  white 
pupils  in  the  Sunday  schools.  The  total  amount  paid  for 
preachers  in  charge  was  $50,221.59  and  for  presiding  elders 
16,699.05.  The  amount  paid  for  Conference  claimants  was 
15,454.20  and  for  missions  $7,010.68. 

The  first  session  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference  was  held 
in  the  lecture  room  of  Trinity  Church,  Savannah,  Bishop  George 
P.  Pierce  presiding.  J.  Blakely  Smith,  who  had  been  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Georgia  Conference  for  eighteen  years,  was  elected 
Secretary.  Among  the  leading  members  who  came  to  the  South 
Georgia  Conference  in  the  division  were :  Lovick  Pierce,  Joseph 
S.  Key,  James  W.  Hinton,  Isaac  S.  Hopkins,  G.  G.  N.  MacDon- 
ell,  E.  H.  Myers,  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  James  E.  Evans,  A.  M.  Wynn. 
W.  A.  Parks,  J.  B.  McGehee,  J.  O.  A.  Cook,  T.  T.  Christian, 
and  J.  Blakely  Smith. 

At  the  close  of  its  first  year  the  Conference  had  19,626  while 
members  and  206  Sunday  schools,  with  9,003  pupils.  There 
were  seven  districts,  with  eighty-six  pastoral  charges;  also 
three  colored  districts.  The  amount  raised  for  ministerial 
support  this  year  was  as  follows:  Preachers  in  charge,  $37,- 
825.21 ;  presiding  elders,  $6,925.56.  Other  amounts  raised  were 
as  follows:  Conference  claimants,  $2,933.27;  domestic  mis 
sions,  $2,719.31 ;  foreign  missions,  $546.35 ;  Sunday  schools,  $3, 
137.82.   The  value  of  all  Church  property  was  $479,385. 

As  showing  something  of  the  growth  of  the  Conference,  the 
following  figures  are  taken  from  the  statistics  of  the  forty- 
ninth  session,  held  in  Cordele,  November  24-29,  1915:  Ten  dis- 
tricts ;  239  pastoral  charges,  with  93,056  members ;  712  Sunday 
schools,  with  65,165  scholars  enrolled  during  the  year.  The 
following  amounts  were  reported :  For  preachers  in  charge, 
$213,597;  for  presiding  elders,  $25,834;  for  Conference  claim- 
ants, $15,604 ;  for  home  and  Conference  missions,  $24,561 ;  for 
foreign  missions,  $28,059;  for  Sunday  schools,  $42,427.  The 
total  amount  raised  for  all  purposes  in  1915  was  $661,219.  The 


406 


History  of  Methodism. 


present  value  of  Church  property  is  $2,673,894.  This  does  not 
include  the  schools  and  colleges. 

During  the  forty-nine  years  of  its  history  twenty-two  bishops 
have  presided  over  the  sessions  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference, 
as  follows:  George  F.  Pierce,  eight;  W.  M.  Wightman,  two; 
H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  two ;  E.  M.  Marvin,  one ;  Robert  Paine,  one ; 
D.  S.  Doggett,  two;  H.  N.  McTyeire,  two;  J.  C.  Keener,  two; 
J.  C.  Granbery,  two;  A.  W.  Wilson,  five;  E.  R.  Hendrix,  two; 
W.  W.  Duncan,  four;  R.  K.  Hargrove,  two;  A.  G.  Haygood, 
one;  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  one;  C.  B.  Galloway,  three;  J.  S.  Key, 
two;  W.  A.  Candler,  three;  Seth  Ward,  one;  James  Atkins, 
one;  H.  C.  Morrison,  two;  and  J.  C.  Kilgo,  one. 

During  these  years  there  have  been  five  Secretaries — to  wit : 
J.  Blakely  Smith,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Georgia  Con- 
ference eighteen  years,  was  Secretary  of  the  South  Georgia 
Conference  four  years ;  Stephen  D.  Clements,  ten  years ;  R.  B. 
Bryan,  eight  years ;  W.  C.  Lovett,  eight  years ;  and  the  present 
Secretary,  W.  F.  Smith,  son  of  J.  Blakely  Smith,  eighteen 
years. 

Only  twice  during  the  forty-nine  years  has  the  bishop  failed 
to  appear  at  the  opening  session  of  the  Conference.  In  1879 
Bishop  Doggett  was  detained  on  account  of  illness,  and  Dr. 
J.  W.  Hinton  was  elected  President.  Bishop  Doggett  took  the 
chair  during  the  first  day's  session.  In  1896  Bishop  Keener  was 
assigned  to  the  South  Georgia  Conference.  He  was  prevented 
from  attending  on  account  of  the  illness  and  death  of  a  daugh- 
ter. At  the  last  moment  Bishop  Duncan  was  requested  to  hold 
the  Conference.  He  was  not  able  to  reach  the  seat  of  the  Con- 
ference, Valdosta,  Ga.,  in  time  for  the  first  day.  Dr.  J.  O. 
Branch  was  elected  President.  Bishop  Duncan  was  present 
at  the  opening  of  the  second  day's  session.  Since  the  year  1866 
415  preachers  have  been  admitted  on  trial,  and  139  have  died. 

The  only  delegate  from  the  South  Georgia  Conference  to  the 
first  General  Conference  after  the  division,  in  1870,  now  living 
is  Bishop  Joseph  S.  Key.  Dr.  J.  B.  McGehee,  who  is  still  alive, 
was  elected  an  alternate  to  this  Conference. 

The  following-named  Presidents  of  Wesleyan  Female  College 
were  furnished  from  the  South  Georgia  Conference:  Dr.  J.  M. 
Bonnell,  Dr.  E.  H.  Myers,  Dr.  W.  C.  Bass,  Mr.  Dupont  Guerry 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


407 


(layman),  Dr.  W.  N.  Ainsworth,  and  the  present  incumbent, 
Dr.  C.  R.  Jenkins.  Of  the  Presidents  of  Emory  College,  Dr. 
O.  L.  Smith,  Dr.  C.  E.  Dowman,  and  Dr.  Isaac  S.  Hopkins  were 
from  the  South  Georgia  Conference. 

Besides  holding  joint  ownership  with  the  North  Georgia  and 
the  Florida  Conferences  in  Wesleyan  College  and  in  Emory 
(merged  into  Emory  University),  the  South  Georgia  Confer- 
ence holds  the  undivided  interest  in  Andrew  Female  Col- 
lege, Cuthbert,  Ga.,  J.  W.  Malone,  President;  South  Georgia 
College,  McRae,  Ga.,  F.  H.  Branch,  a  layman,  President; 
Warthen  College,  Wrightsville,  Ga.,  Z.  Whitehurst,  a  layman, 
President-elect ;  Sparks  Collegiate  Institute,  Sparks,  Ga.,  A.  W. 
Rees,  President;  and  Pierce  Collegiate  Institute,  Blackshear, 
Ga.,  J.  C.  Sirmons,  President.  All  of  these  institutions  are  do- 
ing excellent  work. 

The  Conference  has  furnished  two  editors  of  the  Wesleyan 
Christian  Advocate — Dr.  E.  H.  Myers  and  Dr.  W.  C.  Lovett. 
Dr.  Lovett  was  elected  in  1899  and  has  served  continuously  as 
editor  of  the  Wesleyan,  which  is  the  organ  of  the  North  and 
South  Georgia  Conferences. 

During  the  first  decade  of  the  present  century  the  South 
Georgia  Conference  became  an  inspiration  to  the  entire  Con- 
nection in  missionary  activity.  The  reports  for  the  quadren- 
nium  190G-10  show  that,  including  Church  Extension  and  the 
work  of  the  women,  the  Conference  raised  for  missions  the  sum 
of  $429,0G9.29.  It  was  the  first  Conference  in  the  Connection 
in  which  every  district  paid  the  entire  amount  assessed  for 
foreign  missions,  and  for  a  number  of  years  it  led  the  entire 
Church  in  this  work;  but  for  the  past  two  or  three  years  the 
Virginia  Conference,  on  account  of  the  large  amount  paid  for 
specials,  has  gone  beyond  its  sister  body.  The  South  Geor- 
gia Conference  has  in  the  foreign  field  men  and  women — twenty 
in  number — and  has  yet  others  preparing  for  this  great  work. 

The  South  Georgia  Conference  has  been  felt  in  the  connec- 
tional  life  of  Methodism.  Dr.  J oseph  S.  Key,  an  honored  mem- 
ber of  this  Conference,  was  elected  bishop  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1886.  During  and  at  the  close  of  the  War  between 
the  States  the  finances  of  the  Church  were  so  depleted  that  it 
became  necessary  to  stop  the  publication  of  the  Quarterly  Re- 


408 


History  of  Methodism. 


view.  Dr.  J.  W.  Hinton,  a  member  of  the  South  Georgia  Con- 
ference, undertook  the  work  of  publishing  the  Review  at  his 
own  expense,  though  under  the  auspices  of  the  General  Con- 
ference. He  continued  this  work  until  the  Church  was  again 
able  to  take  it  up. 

Members  of  the  Conference  on  important  Boards  and  Com 
mittees  of  the  Church  are  as  follows :  W.  C.  Lovett,  D.D.,  mem- 
ber of  the  Book  Committee;  T.  1).  Ellis,  D.D.,  on  the  Committee 
on  Appeals  and  the  Committee  to  Investigate  Charters;  J.  M. 
Outler,  on  the  Sunday  School  Board ;  Mr.  R.  F.  Burden,  on  the 
Board  of  Missions  and  the  Committee  on  Lay  Activities ;  C.  R. 
Jenkins,  D.D.,  on  the  Commission  on  Education  (to  classify 
schools)  ;  Judge  S.  B.  Adams,  on  the  Committee  on  World  Con- 
ference of  Faith  and  Order.  Dr.  Ed  F.  Cook  is  Secretary  of 
the  Foreign  Department  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  and  Mrs.  R. 
W.  MacDonell  is  Secretary  of  the  Home  Department  of  the 
same  Board — both  from  the  South  Georgia  Conference.  Dr. 
W.  N.  Ainsworth,  of  this  Conference,  was  the  last  fraternal 
messenger  from  our  Church  to  the  Canadian  Methodists.  He 
is  now  a  member  of  the  Commission  on  Unification  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

The  members  of  the  last  General  Conference  from  the  South 
Georgia  Conference  were  as  follows:  Clerical — W.  N.  Ains- 
worth, T.  D.  Ellis,  C.  R,  Jenkins,  Ed  F.  Cook,  W.  C.  Lovett, 
and  Bascom  Anthony.  Lay — N.  E.  Harris  ( present  Governor 
of  Georgia),  Rev.  Charles  Lane,  H.  J.  Fullbright,  T.  J.  Benton, 
J.  F.  Harris,  and  R.  L.  Greer.  Clerical  alternates — J.  M.  Out- 
ler and  W.  F.  Smith.  Lay  alternates — L.  W.  Branch,  J.  H. 
M<  Gehee,  and  R.  F.  Burden. 

The  Conference  celebrated  its  semicentennial  in  1916. 

North  Georgia  Conference. 

The  minutes  of  both  the  North  Georgia  and  the  South  Geor- 
gia Conferences  carried  for  the  year  1915-16  the  legend  "Fiftieth 
Session,"  but  their  history  goes  back  through  the  old  Georgia 
Conference  to  the  year  1788.  On  the  first  day  of  May  in  that 
year  Bishop  Asbury  crossed  the  Savannah  River  into  Georgia 
and  proceeded  to  the  forks  of  the  Broad  River,  in  what  is  now 
Elbert  County,  where  the  first  conference  of  the  preachers  was 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


409 


to  be  held.  Ten  itinerants  were  reported  present — six  mem- 
bers of  the  South  Carolina  Conference  and  four  probationers. 
Amongst  the  former  was  Hope  Hull,  famous  in  the  history  of 
early  Methodism  both  in  Georgia  and  elsewhere.  In  1792  he 
went  to  assist  Jesse  Lee  in  planting  Methodism  in  New  Eng- 
land, but  later  returned  to  Georgia  and  engaged  in  the  work 
of  education.  Eemoving  to  Athens,  he  became  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  University  of  Georgia  and  was  at  one  time  its 
acting  President.  An  acute  annalist  has  described  him  as  a 
fine  type  of  the  old-time  Methodist  preacher. 

The  Georgia  appointments  for  1788  head  the  list  in  the 
printed  minutes  of  that  year,  which  have  no  names  designating 
either  districts  or  Conferences.  The  method  of  geographical 
classification  had  not  then  come  into  use.  The  membership 
reported  from  the  Washington  Circuit  was  that  year  given  as 
seven  hundred  and  seventy-eight.  In  all  America  there  were 
only  six  other  charges  reporting  so  large  a  number  in  society. 

In  1801  the  designation  of  the  charges  by  districts  first  ap- 
pears in  the  printed  minutes,  and  the  Georgia  District  is 
credited  with  seven  appointments ;  but  one  of  these  is  Natchez, 
six  hundred  miles  from  the  other  circuits,  across  the  lands  of 
the  Creeks,  the  Choctaws,  and  the  Natchez  Indians,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  Kiver.  A  year  later  the  more  dignified 
designation  of  "Conference"  appears  at  the  head  of  the  several 
groups  of  districts ;  but  Georgia  is  still  shown  as  a  district  and 
an  integrant  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  with  Stith 
Mead  as  presiding  elder.  This  relation  of  the  Georgia  territory 
to  the  South  Carolina  Conference  continued  until  1831,  when 
for  the  first  time  its  several  districts  appear  in  the  printed  min- 
utes as  a  separate  Conference.  At  this  time  the  districts  num- 
bered six  in  all,  one  of  them,  the  Tallahassee,  embracing  the 
whole  of  the  evangelized  territory  of  the  State  of  Florida. 

The  General  Conference  of  1866  authorized  the  division  of 
Georgia  into  two  Conferences,  which  direction  was  carried  out 
in  the  same  year,  the  undivided  body  meeting  for  the  last  time 
at  Americus  on  December  5.  In  1867  the  North  Georgia  Con- 
ference represented  38,211  white  and  6,685  colored  members. 
Since  the  organization  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference  the 
following-named  bishops  have  presided  over  its  sessions:  Bishop 


410 


History  of  Methodism. 


Pierce,  six  times;  Bishop  McTyeire,  five  times;  Bishops  Wilson 
and  Keener,  four  times  each;  Bishops  Hendrix,  Duncan,  and 
Denny,  three  times  each ;  Bishops  Wightman,  Paine,  Haygood, 
Galloway,  and  Ward,  twice  each ;  and  Bishops  Marvin,  Har- 
grove, Key,  Fitzgerald,  Candler,  Hoss,  McCoy,  and  Doggett, 
once  each.  The  North  Georgia  Conference  has  given  two  bish- 
ops to  the  Church — A.  G.  Haygood  and  Warren  A.  Candler. 
Bishops  Andrew  and  Pierce  came  from  that  part  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Georgia  now  lying  within  the  North  Georgia  Conference. 

The  list  of  the  mighty  men  of  Methodism  who  have  been 
identified  with  this  old  Conference,  which  contains  what  is 
said  to  be  the  largest  solid  block  of  Methodism  in  the  world, 
is  long  and  perhaps  unsurpassed  by  any  other  Conference  of 
the  Church.  The  list  for  the  year  18GG,  when  the  division  of 
the  original  body  occurred,  contained  such  names  as:  W.  H. 
Potter,  I.  S.  Hopkins,  H.  H.  Parks,  Lovick  Pierce,  Morgan 
Callaway,  A.  G.  Haygood,  A.  M.  Thigpen,  John  W.  Heidt, 
Clement  A.  Evans,  J.  B.  McGehee,  W.  P.  Harrison,  J.  W.  Hin- 
ton,  and  W.  C.  Dunlap;  and  not  a  few  names  which  have  be- 
come of  Church-wide  distinction  have  been  written  on  the  Con- 
ference rolls  since  those  days.  Amongst  the  delegates  repre- 
senting the  North  Georgia  Conference  in  the  General  Confer- 
ence during  recent  years  are:  James  E.  Dickey,  John  D.  Ham- 
mond, James  H.  Eakes,  M.  J.  Cofer,  Thomas  J.  Christian,  Bever- 
ly Allen,  J.  A.  Sharp,  C.  O.  Jones,  R  G.  Smith,  Fletcher  Wal- 
ton, and  Charles  E.  Dowman.  Leading  lay  members  have  been  : 
John  D.  Walker,  John  X.  Holder,  John  T.  Duncan,  Joseph  A. 
McCord,  Asa  G.  Candler,  E.  A.  Copeland,  L.  M.  Heard,  W.  W. 
Pilcher,  M.  M.  Parks,  T.  W.  Harbin,  and  J.  M.  Pound. 

Alabama  Conference. 

It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  determine  when  the  gospel 
according  to  Methodism  was  first  preached  in  Alabama.  Prior 
to  1S29  there  were  scattered  settlements  of  whites  fringing  the 
eastern,  northern,  and  western  boundaries  of  the  territory  now 
embraced  in  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
first  preaching  was  done  by  local  preachers,  exhorters,  and  class 
leaders  almost  simultaneously  in  each  of  these  groups  of  set- 
tlements.   An  appointment  had  been  made  by  the  South  Caro- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


411 


lina  Conference  of  one  man  to  serve  the  Alabama  Mission, 
whose  boundaries  were  indeterminate  prior  to  this ;  but  Meth- 
odism as  an  organized  force  in  Alabama  dates  from  1829,  in 
which  year  the  Mississippi  Conference  appointed  preachers  to 
serve  the  Alabama  District  of  that  Conference.  In  1830  the 
work  had  grown  into  two  districts,  known  as  the  Alabama  and 
the  Black  Warrior  Districts,  of  the  Mississippi  Conference. 
This  condition  obtained  until  December,  1833,  when  the  Ala- 
bama Conference  was  organized  and  held  its  first  session  at 
Tuscaloosa.  At  this  session  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew  pre- 
sided. We  regret  that  the  available  records  do  not  enable  us 
to  give  the  name  of  the  man  who  served  as  Secretary.  Among 
the  prominent  men  who  were  members  of  the  Conference,  we 
find  E.  V.  LeVert,  Ebenezer  Hearn,  and  Robert  L.  Kennon,  one 
of  whom  was  probably  the  Secretary.  From  its  organization 
until  1SG3  the  Alabama  Conference  embraced  all  of  Alabama 
south  of  the  Tennessee  River  and  parts  of  Mississippi  and  West 
Florida. 

At  the  session  of  the  Conference  held  in  Columbus,  Miss.,  De- 
cember, 1S63,  under  the  presidency  of  Bishop  Andrew,  the  Con- 
ference was  divided  into  the  Mobile  and  Montgomery  Confer- 
ences, this  arrangement  holding  until  1870,  when  the  lines  were 
changed  so  as  to  run  east  and  west  instead  of  north  and  south ; 
and  the  two  divisions  were  henceforth  known  as  the  Alabama 
and  the  North  Alabama  Conferences,  the  southern  half  of  the 
State  and  West  Florida  retaining  the  original  name,  Alabama 
Conference. 

Over  the  sessions  of  the  Conference,  dating  from  its  organiza- 
tion in  1833,  have  presided  all  the  bishops  of  the  Church,  except 
five  of  those  elected  to  the  office  in  1910,  in  their  order  of  elec- 
tion from  Bishop  Joshua  Soule  to  Bishop  John  C.  Kilgo. 

Among  the  prominent  men  who  have  influenced  the  Confer- 
ence in  the  past  and  who  have  been  transferred  to  the  Church 
triumphant  may  be  mentioned  Jefferson  Hamilton,  Holland  N. 
McTyeire,  Greenberry  Garrett,  T.  W.  Dorman,  Edward  Wads- 
worth,  William  Murrah,  Thomas  O.  Summers,  George  W.  Price, 
Simon  Peter  Richardson,  P.  P.  Neeley,  Allen  S.  Andrews,  Mark 
S.  Andrews,  Henry  Urquhart,  Silas  H.  Cox,  W.  M.  Motley,  J. 
W.  Rush,  William  A.  McCarty,  R.  B.  Crawford,  J.  O.  Andrew, 


412 


History  of  Methodism. 


James  M.  Mason,  and  John  C.  Keener.  The  last-named  was 
admitted  on  trial  into  this  Conference  and  was  connected  with 
it  for  the  first  three  years  of  his  ministry. 

The  Secretaries  of  the  Conference,  so  far  as  available  records 
reveal,  have  been  Thomas  W.  Dorman,  James  A.  Heard,  B.  B. 
Ross,  John  Mathews,  J.  M.  Brown,  and  T.  S.  Abernethy,  each 
of  whom  (except  the  last  two,  who  served  only  one  year  each) 
held  the  office  for  terms  of  from  twTo  to  five  years.  At  the  ses- 
sion of  1872  Robert  B.  Crawford  was  elected  Secretary  and 
so  remained  until  his  death,  in  1889,  when  he  wras  succeeded 
by  James  M.  Mason,  who  continued  to  act  until  his  death,  in 
1909,  from  wilich  date  until  the  present  (1916)  A.  J.  Lamar  has 
filled  the  place.  Other  living  members  of  the  Conference  who 
are  amongst  the  present-day  leaders  are:  J.  S.  Frazer,  E.  A. 
Dannelly,  W.  M.  Cox,  W.  P.  Hurt,  C.  A.  Rush,  A.  Sledd,  M.  H. 
Holt,  A.  P.  McFerrin,  R.  A.  Moody,  O.  C.  McGehee,  H.  H.  Mc- 
Neill, C.  W.  Xorthcutt,  W.  P.  Dickenson,  and  E.  C.  Moore. 

North  Alabama  Conference. 

The  North  Alabama  Conference  was  organized  at  Gadsden, 
Ala.,  November  16, 1870,  being  formed  from  portions  of  the  Ten- 
nessee, Mobile,  and  Montgomery  Conferences.  Bishop  Robert 
Paine  presided,  and  Dr.  John  G.  Wilson  was  elected  Secretary. 
Fifty-seven  clerical  and  nineteen  lay  delegates  answered  to  roll 
call.  Dr.  John  A.  Thompson,  a  charter  member  of  the  Confer- 
ence, says :  "There  was  nothing  so  poor  in  the  way  of  a  Confer- 
ence as  the  North  Alabama  when  it  was  organized."  On  the 
other  hand,  Rev.  J.  D.  Anthony,  in  his  "Life  and  Sermons," 
says:  "The  North  Alabama  preachers  wTere  a  strong  body  of 
men.  The  organization  compared  favorably  with  any  of  its  sis 
ter  Conferences."  The  one  no  doubt  spoke  of  the  material 
wealth  and  resources,  the  other  of  the  personnel  of  the  Confer- 
ence. 

The  names  of  such  men  as  John  B.  Stephenson,  John  A. 
Thompson,  Anson  West,  F.  T.  J.  Brandon,  J.  D.  Anthony,  J. 
M.  Ballard,  J.  G.  Gurley,  T.  G.  Slaughter,  W.  E.  Mabrey,  K.  K. 
Brown,  Daniel  Duncan,  L.  M.  Wilson,  L.  R.  Bell,  C.  D.  Oliver, 
and  others  appear  in  the  list  of  charter  members.  The  number 
was  soon  increased  by  such  men  as  W.  C.  McCoy,  J.  W.  Chris- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


413 


tian,  J.  T.  Morris,  W.  T.  Andrews,  John  W.  Newman,  S.  L. 
Dobbs,  L.  F.  Whitten,  and  V.  O.  Hawkins. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  the  first  session  of  the  Conference,  Sat- 
urday, November  19,  1870,  says  the  Journal:  "Bishop  H.  N. 
McTyeire  was  presented  to  the  Conference  by  Bishop  Paine  and 
requested  to  assist  in  the  Conference's  business."  For  Monday 
morning,  November  21,  1870,  the  Journal  reads :  "Bishop  H.  N. 
McTyeire  reported  the  following  traveling  preachers  as  having 
been  ordained  by  himself  on  yesterday — viz.,  William  McQueen, 
Reason  T.  Moore,  and  D.  M.  Booth."  In  answer  to  Question  1, 
"Who  are  admitted  on  trial?"  we  find  the  names  of  George 
T.  Whitten,  William  T.  Andrews,  Benjamin  Vaughn,  John  W. 
Newman,  Robert  G.  Ragan,  M.  M.  Hawkins,  and  B.  F.  Larabee. 
In  answer  to  Question  2,  "Who  remain  on  trial?"  L.  F.  Whit- 
ten, Isaac  D.  Grace,  George  R.  Lynch.  Announced  as  having 
been  transferred  from  the  Tennessee  Conference  were  the  names 
of  W.  Weakley,  T.  H.  Davenport,  and  P.  L.  Henderson. 

The  North  Alabama  Conference  at  its  organization  was  com- 
posed of  seven  districts :  Florence,  Talladega,  Huntsville,  Lar- 
kinsville,  Gadsden,  La  Fayette,  and  Tuscaloosa.  The  Journal 
shows  the  following  totals:  "Paid  for  support  of  bishops, 
1651.52 ;  assessed  for  presiding  elders,  f 5,061 ;  paid  for  presid- 
ing elders,  $3,464.19;  assessed  for  preachers  in  charge,  $31,- 
514.23 ;  paid  for  preachers  in  charge,  22,711.56."  No  statistics 
of  membership,  etc.,  are  given. 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Conference,  held  in  Florence, 
Ala.,  November  15,  1871,  Bishop  G.  F.  Pierce  presided,  and  J. 
G.  Wilson  was  again  elected  Secretary.  The  statistics  were: 
White  members,  24,424 ;  colored  members,  39 ;  local  preachers, 
293 ;  adults  baptized,  1,735 ;  number  of  churches,  442 ;  value  of 
church  property,  $226,415 ;  number  of  parsonages,  14 ;  value  of 
parsonages,  $13,050. 

Since  1871  the  following-named  bishops  have  presided :  Mar 
vin,  Doggett,  McTyeire,  Keener,  Kavanaugh,  Paine,  Candler, 
Hendrix,  Mouzon,  Galloway,  Key,  Wilson,  Hargrove,  Duncan, 
Smith,  Granbery,  Hoss,  Kilgo,  McCoy,  and  Denny. 

The  Journal  of  1915-16  shows  twelve  districts  and  319  clerical 
members  of  the  Annual  Conference,  including  undergraduates. 
Present  total  membership,  101,386 ;  local  preachers,  299 ;  added 


History  of  Methodism. 


on  profession,  6,429 ;  added  by  letter  or  otherwise,  6,059 ;  num- 
ber of  church  buildings,  787;  value  of  church  property,  $2,- 
021,200;  number  of  parsonages,  231;  value  of  parsonages,  $452,- 
288;  value  of  school  property,  $557,500;  assessed  for  bishops, 
$3,606 ;  paid,  $2,699 ;  assessed  for  presiding  elders,  $31,576 ;  paid, 
$28,988 ;  assessed  for  preachers  in  charge,  $212,984 ;  paid,  $195,- 
543;  paid  for  all  purposes,  $617,209. 

Mississippi  Conference. 

As  early  as  January  1,  1799,  Bishop  Asbury  directed  Tobias 
Gibson  to  go  as  a  missionary  to  the  settlements  of  the  South- 
west and  instructed  him  to  proceed  to  his  new  field  of  labor 
as  soon  as  the  rigors  of  winter  would  permit.  Setting  out  upon 
his  journey  to  the  Natchez  country,  for  that  was  his  destina- 
tion, Gibson  traveled  six  hundred  miles  on  horseback  to  a  point 
on  the  Cumberland  River,  where  he  entered  a  skiff,  made  his 
way  down  the  Cumberland  to  its  mouth,  thence  down  the  Ohio, 
and  from  the  mouth  of  that  stream  on  a  flatboat  until  the  end 
of  his  voyage  brought  him  to  Natchez  in  March,  1799.  At  this 
time  the  territory  of  Mississippi  and  contiguous  parts  were 
nominally  included  in  what  was  known  as  the  Western  Con- 
ference, which  jurisdiction  was  supposed  to  embrace,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Southwest,  the  States  of  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Mr.  Gibson,  however,  labored  in  these 
fields  as  a  member  of  the  "South"  Conference,  as  the  work  in 
South  Carolina  was  sometimes  called.  This  left  the  region  of 
the  Southwest  in  a  rather  ambiguous  relation  ;  but  by  1804  it 
became  a  district  of  the  Western  Conference,  definitely  so  de- 
scribed. 

The  first  Methodist  society  in  the  territory  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference  was  organized  in  Washington,  Adams  County, 
which  was  the  territorial  capital.  This  society  consisted  of 
eight  members,  four  men  and  four  women.  Two  of  these,  a 
man  and  his  wife,  were  negro  slaves.  In  the  year  which 
followed  societies  were  organized  at  other  points  along  the 
river,  and  to  the  South  Carolina  Conference  of  Jan  nary,  1^00, 
Mr.  Gibson  reported  sixty  members. 

During  the  years  that  marked  the  quasi  connection  of  this 
region  with  the  South  Carolina  Conference  Natchez  appeared 


Sketches  of  Annual  (Conferences. 


415 


as  an  appointment  in  the  Georgia  District.  In  the  ensuing 
year  Natchez  and  Nashville,  Tenn.,  appear  together  in  the  Cum 
berland  District  of  the  Western  Conference.  At  the  end  of  the 
second  year  Mr.  Gibson  was  able  to  report  a  net  gain  of  twenty 
members  to  be  added  to  the  total  of  the  year  before.  By  1803 
the  number  had  increased  to  one  hundred  and  two,  of  whom 
only  two  were  negroes,  possibly  the  two  first  reported  from 
the  society  formed  in  Washington.  A  rapid  advance  is  noted 
during  the  next  few  years.  Members  were  constantly  added, 
new  churches  were  built,  new  missionaries  came  into  the  dis- 
trict, and  gradually  the  work  assumed  the  shape  and  relations 
of  the  older  fields.  Amongst  the  early  missionaries  to  follow 
Gibson  were  Moses  Floyd,  Hezekiah  Harriman,  and  Abraham 
Amos. 

Tobias  Gibson,  worthy  to  be  styled  the  apostle  of  Methodism 
to  the  Southwest,  died  April  5,  1804,  and  was  buried  in  War- 
ren County,  a  few  miles  south  of  the  city  of  Vicksburg.  In  aft- 
er years  there  was  raised  above  his  grave  a  marble  column, 
which  remains  to  this  day  and  is  often  visited  by  devout  Meth- 
odists as  a  shrine  of  unusual  sanctity.  As  early  as  1805  Learn- 
er Blackman  and  Nathan  Barnes  were  sent  to  take  up  labors  in 
this  field.  With  them  on  their  journey  rode  Lorenzo  Dow,  that 
wonderful  man  of  the  early  Methodist  era.  Later  Dow  pur- 
chased, or  perhaps  had  given  him,  a  parcel  of  land  in  the 
primeval  wilds  in  that  part  of  the  Natchez  country  known  as 
the  Coles  Creek  region,  where  he  built  a  cottage  or  cabin  and 
in  which,  with  his  wife,  at  least  a  portion  of  his  time  was  spent. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Blackman  and  Barnes,  assisted  by 
Lorenzo  Dow,  there  was  held  in  this  section  in  the  latter  part 
of  1805  the  first  camp  meeting  ever  undertaken  below  the 
Tennessee  line.  It  was  held  at  a  place  six  or  eight  miles  from 
the  present  town  of  Port  Gibson. 

The  Mississippi  District,  with  Learner  Blackman  as  presid 
ing  elder,  was  formed  in  1806.  It  consisted  of  four  pastoral 
appointments — namely:  Natchez  Circuit,  in  charge  of  Nathan 
Barnes  and  Thomas  Lasley;  Claiborne  Circuit,  in  charge  of 
William  Pattison ;  Wilkinson  Circuit,  Caleb  Cloud  and  Luther- 
Taylor  in  charge;  Opelousas  Circuit,  Elisha  W.  Bowman  in 
charge.    James  Griffin  and  Randall  Gibson,  the  first  men 


416 


History  of  Methodism. 


licensed  to  preach  in  this  region,  were  employed  as  assistants 
by  these  several  pastors  in  charge.  The  Western  Conference 
was  dismembered  in  1812.  and  in  its  place  appeared  the  Ohio 
and  the  Tennessee  Conferences,  in  the  latter  of  which  the  Mis- 
sissippi territory  appeared  as  a  district. 

On  November  1,  1813,  there  was  a  gathering  of  the  preachers 
of  the  Southwest  from  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi  River  to 
hold  the  first  session  of  the  Mississippi  Conference.  Bishop 
McKendree  was  to  have  been  present,  but  the  condition  of  the 
territory  along  the  Tombigbee  River  and  the  middle  northern 
part  of  Mississippi  was  considered  dangerous  for  travel  be- 
cause of  the  uprising  of  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  Indians. 
The  Bishop  was,  therefore,  dissuaded  from  undertaking  the 
journey.  The  preachers  met  and  organized,  with  Samuel  Sel- 
lers as  President  and  William  Winans  as  Secretary.  The  name 
of  Winans  was  destined  to  become  mighty  in  Methodist  his- 
tory, not  only  of  this  region,  but  of  the  whole  Connection. 
In  fact,  the  Church  lias  known  few  greater  leaders  or  mightier 
preachers  during  its  whole  era.  Ten  members  reported  at  this 
gathering,  and  for  three  years  they  continued  to  meet  in  an- 
nual session  without  the  presence  of  a  bishop.  They  made  up 
their  reports  of  business,  sending  the  same  to  Tennessee  to  be 
incorporated  in  the  minutes  of  that  Conference.  It  thus  hap- 
pens that  for  these  years  Mississippi  is  referred  to  in  the  Gen- 
eral Minutes  as  a  district.  It  was  not  until  1816  that  a  bishop 
was  able  to  make  his  Avay  into  this  region.  Bishop  R.  R. 
Roberts,  who  was  elected  at  the  General  Conference  of  that 
year,  was  by  Bishop  McKendree  assigned  to  visit  the  Confer- 
ence and  complete  its  organization.  This  he  did,  it  being  the 
first  Conference  which  he  ever  held. 

For  a  long  time  the  territory  of  Alabama  was  embraced  in 
the  Mississippi  Conference  and  so  remained  until  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Alabama  Conference,  in  1832.  Per  contra,  a  part 
of  the  territory  of  Mississippi  was  left  in  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence, as  a  part  of  the  territory  of  Louisiana  was  left  in  the 
Mississippi  Conference,  until  the  readjustment  of  lines  in  later 
years. 

Besides  the  names  of  pioneers  already  mentioned,  the  names 
of  Drake,  Pipkin,  Clinton,  Cooper,  Steel,  Linfield.  Watkins, 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


417 


Marshall,  Montgomery,  Jones,  Lewis,  Heard,  Abbey,  Feather- 
stun,  Hunnicutt,  Hines,  Ellis,  Godfrey,  Forsyth,  Black,  Single- 
ton, Weems,  Mounger,  and  Holloman  have  been  well  known. 
The  sons  and  other  descendants  of  some  of  the  men  who  made 
these  names  worthy  of  honor  are  members  of  the  Conference 
and  well  preserve  the  records  of  their  forbears. 

North  Mississippi  Conference. 

The  North  Mississippi  Conference,  organized  from  territory 
taken  from  the  Memphis,  the  Alabama,  and  the  Mississippi 
Conferences,  met  in  its  first  session  at  Water  Valley,  Miss., 
November  30,  1870,  Bishop  Doggett  presiding.  Rev.  John  Bar- 
croft  was  elected  Secretary  and  served  efficiently  in  this  ca- 
pacity for  the  remaining  twenty  years  of  his  life.  The  Confer- 
ence embraces  the  northern  half  of  the  State,  stretching  from 
the  red  hills  of  the  center  through  the  rolling  prairies  on  the 
east  and  the  fertile  alluvial  soil  of  the  great  Mississippi  Delta 
on  the  west.  Yet  its  population  is  everywhere  rural  and  its 
industrial  interests  agricultural.  It  has  no  large  cities,  no 
slums,  no  special  "problems,"  unless  it  be  the  preservation  of 
the  country  Church.  Having  an  unusually  homogeneous  popu- 
lation, with  probably  no  foreign  congregation  of  any  faith  or 
order  within  its  bounds,  it  has  not  the  extreme  differences  in 
rank  of  appointments  found  in  some  Conferences.  Many  peo- 
ple have  left  this  section  of  Mississippi  for  the  West,  and  there 
has  been  little  immigration;  so  that  while  the  additions  report- 
ed should  give  a  net  membership  of  more  than  100,000,  the 
Conference  has  actually  but  59,131  members  after  starting 
forty-six  years  ago  with  21,815. 

This  Conference  has  always  taken  an  active  interest  in  educa- 
tion. Its  schools  are  Grenada  College  for  girls  and,  along  with 
the  Mississippi  Conference,  Millsaps  College  for  men.  It  also 
owns  jointly  with  that  Conference  the  Orphans'  Home  located 
at  Jackson  and  caring  for  more  than  two  hundred  children. 
It  had  a  leading  part  in  the  founding  of  Vanderbilt  University 
and  gave  to  it  its  great  Chancellor,  Landon  C.  Garland.  There 
is  now  a  wholesome  revival  of  enthusiasm  for  Christian  educa- 
tion manifest  in  the  campaign  for  funds  for  Grenada  College 
and  in  gifts  to  Emory  University  and  to  Millsaps  College. 
27 


418 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  North.  Mississippi  Conference  has  ever  maintained  a 
high  average  among  its  preachers,  two  names  from  its  rolls 
appearing  on  the  list  of  bishops — Charles  B.  Galloway,  having 
been  admitted  into  full  connection  at  the  first  session  of  the 
Conference,  though  immediately  transferring  to  the  Mississippi 
Conference;  and  W.  B.  Murrah,  having  been  admitted  in  1874, 
his  connection  with  the  Conference  being  continued  till  his 
election  to  the  episcopacy,  in  1910.  A  number  of  transfers  from 
the  Conference  have  attained  distinction  elsewhere.  Among 
those  whose  labors  have  been  conspicuous  or  who  have  held 
high  honors  at  the  hands  of  their  brethren  may  be  mentioned : 
J.  H.  Brooks,  a  popular  preacher  who  made  the  facts  of  his- 
tory living  realities  to  his  auditors;  J.  J.  Wheat,  D.D.,  many 
years  Professor  of  Greek  at  the  State  University  and  probably 
the  greatest  pulpit  orator  the  Conference  has  had;  W.  T.  J. 
Sullivan,  D.D.,  long-time  presiding  elder  and  educator,  a  scholar 
and  a  saint;  W.  P.  Barton,  pastor  and  presiding  elder,  well  be- 
loved; Gilderoy  Porter,  facile  writer,  author  of  delightful 
stories  for  children,  and  genial  humorist;  S.  M.  Thames,  twenty 
years  a  presiding  elder,  faithful  and  true;  Amos  Kendall,  who 
made  fast  friends  and  remained  many  years  in  a  few  places; 
J.  D.  Cameron,  D.D.,  a  strong  preacher  and  careful  administra- 
tor; T.  C.  Wier,  devout  and  sweet-spirited;  J.  W.  Honnoll, 
"educated  in  a  cornfield,"  but  becoming  a  college  president  and 
master  of  a  style  fit  for  any  pulpit;  J.  W.  Boswell,  D.D.,  editor 
and  author,  ever  ready  to  expound  and  defend  the  doctrines  of 
his  Church;  J.  S.  Oakley,  an  Englishman  fit  for  the  nobility 
and  for  ten  years  the  accurate  and  painstaking  Secretary  of 
his  Conference;  T.  Y.  Ramsey,  Sr.,  a  leader  in  his  day;  R.  A. 
Meek,  D.D.,  the  versatile  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian 
Advocate;  T.  A.  S.  Adams,  poet-preacher;  Philip  Tuggle,  an 
early  leader;  S.  A.  Steel,  renowned  as  an  orator;  T.  W.  Dye,  at 
one  time  editor  of  the  Memphis  Christian  Advocate;  T.  W. 
Lewis  and  T.  J.  Newell,  transferred  and  active  elsewhere;  J. 
W.  Price,  W.  S.  Lagrone,  H.  S.  Spragins,  B.  P.  Jaco,  W.  W. 
Woollard,  J.  R.  Countiss,  and  many  others,  living  and  dead,  of 
whom  the  world  has  not  been  worthy. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


419 


Tennessee  Conference. 

The  General  Conference  of  1812  divided  the  old  Western 
Conference  into  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee  Conferences.  The 
Tennessee  Conference  included  Tennessee,  Illinois,  Missouri, 
parts  of  Kentucky  and  Indiana,  with  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
and  Louisiana  thrown  in  for  good  measure.  The  first  session 
of  the  Tennessee  Conference  was  held  at  Fountain  Head 
Church,  in  Sumner  County.  Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree 
were  present,  but  Bishop  McKendree  presided.  William  B. 
Elgin  was  Secretary.  The  following-named  districts  composed 
the  Conference  at  this  time:  Holston,  Cumberland,  Nashville, 
Wabash,  Mississippi,  and  Illinois.  The  membership  included 
in  this  territory  was  composed  of  20,633  white  and  2,066  col- 
ored persons.  There  were  twenty-two  traveling  elders,  seven 
deacons  of  one  year,  and  seven  who  were  admitted  into  full 
connection  at  that  sitting,  making  thirty-six  traveling  preach- 
ers in  full  connection. 

By  the  subsequent  organization  of  the  Mississippi,  Missouri, 
Kentucky,  Holston,  Memphis,  and  North  Alabama  Conferences 
the  territory  of  the  Tennessee  Conference  was  reduced  to  its 
present  dimensions,  including  only  Middle  Tennessee,  having  a 
smaller  area  than  many  of  the  newer  Conferences,  with  only 
one  large  city,  Nashville,  in  its  bounds.  The  present  member- 
ship of  the  Conference  is  75,395.  There  are  two  hundred  and 
eighteen  preachers  who  are  in  full  connection  and  nineteen 
who  are  on  trial. 

The  following-named  bishops  have  presided  over  the  Confer- 
ence from  the  time  of  its  organization  until  now :  Bishops  As- 
bury, McKendree,  Roberts,  George,  Soule,  Andrew,  Morris, 
Waugh,  Janes,  Paine,  Capers,  Kavanaugh,  Early,  Pierce,  Mc- 
Tyeire,  Doggett,  Marvin,  Wightman,  Keener,  Wilson,  Hendrix, 
Hargrove,  Galloway,  Duncan,  Granbery,  Key,  Fitzgerald, 
Smith,  Hoss,  Candler,  Kilgo,  Denny,  Murrah,  and  Atkins, 
Bishop  E.  S.  Janes  was  the  last  bishop  of  the  undivided  Church 
to  preside  over  the  Tennessee  Conference,  at  the  session  in 
Columbia  in  1844. 

In  the  absence  of  bishops  the  following-named  elders  have 
been  elected  to  preside  over  the  Conference  from  time  to  time : 
Thomas  L.  Douglass  (1817),  Marcus  Lindsay  (1820),  Robert 


420 


History  of  Methodism. 


Paine  (1829,  before  he  was  made  a  bishop),  Lewis  Garrett 
(1830),  Fountain  E.  Pitts  (1838),  A.  L.  P.  Green  (1845),  John 
B.  McFerrin  (1862). 

The  following-named  have  served  the  Conference  as  Secretaries 
from  its  organization  until  now :  William  B.  Elgin,  Thomas  L. 
Douglass,  Hardy  M.  Cryer,  Charles  Holliday,  German  Baker, 
William  L.  McAlister,  D.  C.  McLeod,  John  W.  Hanner,  E.  H. 
Hatcher,  Alexander  R.  Erwin,  Joseph  Cross,  William  C.  John- 
son, Simon  P.  Whitten,  Robert  A.  Young,  William  M.  Left- 
wich,  B.  F.  Haynes,  Lewis  R.  Amis,  and  George  L.  Beale.  Dr. 
Young  held  the  secretaryship  for  eighteen  years,  the  longest 
time  any  one  has  served.  Thomas  L.  Douglass  was  Secretary 
fourteen  times,  though  not  consecutively,  this  being  the  sec- 
ond longest  period. 

The  Tennessee  Conference  has  given  to  the  Church  several 
bishops:  Robert  Paine,  elected  in  1846;  Robert  K.  Hargrove, 
elected  in  1882;  and  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  elected  in  1910.  A 
number  of  the  members  of  this  Conference  have  been  elected 
by  the  General  Conference  to  connectional  offices:  John  B. 
McFerrin,  Editor  Christian  Advocate  (1840-58),  Book  Agent 
(1858-66),  Missionary  Secretary  (1870-78),  Book  Agent  (1878- 
87)  ;  Robert  A.  Young,  Missionary  Secretary  (1882-86)  ;  Wil- 
liam W.  Pinson,  Missionary  Secretary  (1910-18)  ;  D.  C.  Kelley, 
Missionary  Treasurer  (1882-86)  ;  Edwin  B.  Chappell,  Sunday 
School  Editor  (1906-18). 

Of  the  pioneer  preachers,  the  men  who  planted  Methodism 
in  Tennessee,  Benjamin  Ogden,  Francis  Poythress,  John  Page, 
Learner  Blackman,  William  Burke,  and  William  McKendree 
stand  out  in  preeminence.  From  the  organization  of  the  Con- 
ference, in  1812,  only  a  few  names  can  be  given  of  those  who 
wrought  mightily,  men  of  whom  "the  world  is  not  wrorthy," 
whose  "names  are  written  in  heaven";  the  list  is  too  long  to 
be  recorded  here.  But  the  Tennessee  Conference  has  given  to 
Methodism  such  men  as  Thomas  L.  Douglass,  the  friend  and 
confidant  of  Bishop  McKendree;  Robert  Paine,  author  of  the 
"Plan  of  Separation"  in  1844  and  afterwards  one  of  the  bish- 
ops of  the  Church;  Thomas  Maddin,  A.  L.  P.  Green,  John  B. 
McFerrin,  Fountain  E.  Pitts,  John  W.  Hanner,  Joseph  B. 
West,  Samuel  D.  Baldwin,  Robert  A.  Young,  John  Mathews, 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


421 


David  C.  Kelley,  James  D.  Barbee,  James  M.  Wright,  James 
A.  Orman,  William  M.  Leftwich.  Verily  there  were  "giants  in 
those  days." 

The  Tennessee  Conference  has  also  made  liberal  contribu- 
tions to  other  Conferences.  The  following  names  are  of  some 
who  have  gone  out  from  its  fellowship:  Peter  Cartwright,  to 
Illinois;  Jesse  Walker,  to  Mississippi  and  Louisiana;  Charles 
Holliday  (at  one  time  one  of  the  Book  Agents  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  at  Cincinnati),  to  Ohio;  G.  W.  D.  Harris, 
William  C.  Johnson,  and  E.  C.  Slater,  to  the  Memphis  Confer- 
ence; P.  P.  Neeley,  to  Alabama;  C.  C.  Mayhew,  to  Illinois. 

No  Conference  has  been  more  prolific  of  laymen  who  are 
worthy  compeers  of  the  preachers.  Only  a  few  names  can 
be  mentioned.  Gen.  James  Robertson,  the  founder  of  Nash- 
ville, was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Another  was 
Col.  Robert  Weakley,  whose  name  ought  to  be  mentioned. 
Every  section  of  the  Conference  has  its  worthy  representative 
to  add  to  this  list,  as,  for  example:  Col.  Jordan  Stokes,  of 
Lebanon ;  Gen.  Joseph  B.  Palmer,  of  Murfreesboro ;  Gen.  George 
G.  Dibrell,  of  Sparta;  with  such  other  names  as  William  H. 
Evans,  Thompson  Anderson,  Mortimer  Hamilton,  Judge  James 
Whitworth,  and  Col.  E.  W.  Cole,  all  of  Nashville,  who  served 
the  Church  faithfully  and  are  "fallen  on  sleep."  Perhaps  the 
most  distinguished  layman,  in  some  respects,  Tennessee  has 
brought  forth  was  President  James  K.  Polk,  who  late  in  life 
was  converted  and  received  into  the  Methodist  Church  by  Dr. 
McFerrin. 

Missionaries  have  gone  out  from  the  Tennessee  Conference 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  "regions  beyond."  Some  of  them 
are:  Fountain  E.  Pitts,  to  establish  the  mission  in  Buenos 
Aires ;  D.  C.  Kelley,  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  and  Walter  B.  Nance, 
to  China;  John  J.  Ransom  and  H.  C.  Tucker,  to  Brazil;  W.  K. 
Matthews,  to  Japan ;  B.  F.  Gilbert  and  W.  M.  Mullen,  to  Cuba. 

Of  the  living  preachers  and  laymen,  it  is  possible  to  write 
of  only  a  few.  The  delegations  of  the  Conference  in  the  last 
two  General  Conference  sessions  were:  Clerical — E.  B.  Chap- 
pell,  W.  R.  Lambuth,  W.  B.  Taylor,  G.  A.  Morgan,  J.  J.  Stowe, 
W.  F.  Tillett,  W.  B.  Lowry,  W.  T.  Haggard,  H.  B.  Reams, 
T.  A.  Kerley,  J.  W.  Cherry.    Laymen— R.  H.  Peoples,  T.  A. 


422 


History  of  Methodism. 


Embrey,  O.  K.  Holladay,  F.  P.  McWhirter,  W.  T.  Rogers,  O. 
W.  Patton,  P.  D.  Maddin,  J.  O.  Pickering,  Pi.  M.  Rowell,  A.  A. 
Patterson,  J.  W.  Irwin,  W.  T.  Wynn,  J.  H.  Kirkland,  and 
W.  C.  Dibrell. 

Memphis  Conference. 

Amongst  the  staid  and  dignified  bodies  of  Methodism,  the 
Memphis  Conference  has  always  held  high  rank.  It  was  char- 
tered by  the  General  Conference  of  1840  in  the  following  lan- 
guage: "The  Memphis  Conference  shall  be  bounded  on  the  east 
by  the  Tombigbee,  Alabama  State  line,  and  the  Tennessee  Riv- 
er; on  the  north  by  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers;  on  the 
west  by  the  Mississippi  River;  on  the  south  by  a  line  run- 
ning due  east  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  southwest 
corner  of  Tallahatchie  County,  thence  due  east  to  the  south- 
eastern corner  of  Yalobusha  County,  thence  in  a  straight  line 
to  the  northwestern  corner  of  Oktibbeha  County,  thence  due 
east  to  the  Tombigbee  River.''  This  was  an  imperial  demesne 
and  embraced  the  richest  alluvial  sections  of  the  three  States 
of  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  and  Kentucky.  As  time  has  passed, 
the  Mississippi  section  has  been  incorporated  into  the  North 
Mississippi  Conference;  but  the  original  lines,  as  drawn  in 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  remain  unchanged. 

The  first  session  of  the  Memphis  Conference  was  held  at 
Jackson,  Tenn.,  November  4,  1840,  with  Bishop  James  O.  An- 
drew in  the  chair.  W.  L.  McAlister  w^as  made  Secretary  and 
was  reelected  at  five  successive  sessions.  In  that  office  he  has 
had  but  eight  successors  during  seventy-two  years — namely, 
D.  J.  Allen,  A.  L.  Hamilton,  Guilford  Jones,  W.  C.  John- 
son, R.  H.  Mahon,  Warner  Moore,  A.  J.  Meaders,  and  L.  H. 
Estes. 

The  Conference  began  its  official  existence  with  about  fifteen 
thousand  members.  There  were  forty-eight  pastoral  appoint- 
ments, divided  into  five  districts — Pontotoc  (spelled  "Pon- 
tatock"),  Holly  Springs,  Memphis,  Wesley,  and  Paris.  The 
Wesley  District  embraced  the  territory  of  which  Jackson  was 
the  center,  and  the  Paris  District  included  the  entire  region  of 
Kentucky  now  in  the  Memphis  Conference.  Of  the  Pontotoc 
District,  Mordecai  Yell  was  presiding  elder,  while  George  W. 
D.  Harris  was  on  the  Wesley  District.    Henderson  H.  Mont- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


423 


goinery  and  W.  A.  Hamill,  with  others,  were  admitted  on  trial. 
Thomas  L.  Boswell  was  amongst  those  who  remained  on  trial. 
Philip  P.  Neeley  was  a  member  of  the  Conference  and  was  that 
year  assigned  to  Holly  Springs  Station.  Asbury  Davidson  was 
appointed  to  the  Church  at  Jackson.  Neeley  afterwards  went 
to  Alabama,  where  his  fame  as  a  pulpit  orator  ripened  into 
Church-wide  renown.  Davidson  became  one  of  the  pioneer 
itinerants  in  Texas  and  left  there  the  memory  of  a  devout  and 
scholarly  ministry. 

With  a  territory  much  lessened  from  its  early  limits,  the 
Memphis  Conference  has  shown  a  record  of  wonderful  expan- 
sion. Its  membership,  as  reported  in  1915,  is  76,522,  with 
Church  property  approximating  in  value  the  sum  of  two  and  a 
quarter  million  dollars. 

The  Memphis  Conference  was  foremost  amongst  the  Annual 
Conferences  in  planning  and  founding  "The  Central  Methodist 
University,"  which  later  took  the  name  of  "Vanderbilt."  At 
Memphis  the  Annual  Conference  representatives  gathered  and 
held  the  famous  "Memphis  Convention,"  which  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  movement  for  a  Church  university.  The  resolu- 
tions of  that  convention,  composed  of  devout,  loyal,  and  exclu- 
sive churchmen,  became  the  body  of  the  charter  of  the  univer- 
sity and  were  meant  to  be  as  the  scroll  of  the  law  in  the  ark  of 
the  covenant,  but  were  afterwards  decried  by  Philistine  lips  as 
"surplusage"  and  treated  as  a  thing  unholy.  At  its  session  in 
1915  the  Memphis  Conference  put  to  record  in  its  Journal  a 
memorial  of  its  part  in  the  making  of  the  Church's  education- 
al trust.  That  memorial  will  be  read  with  interest  by  the  gen- 
erations of  Methodists  yet  to  be. 

The  delegates  of  the  Memphis  Conference  in  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1844  were :  George  W.  D.  Harris,  Samuel  S.  Moody, 
William  McMahan,  and  Thomas  Joyner.  Since  that  date  it  has 
had  in  its  membership  many  strong  men,  some  native  to  the 
soil,  some  who  came  from  other  Conferences  to  serve  the  pros- 
perous congregations,  of  which  the  Conference  has  always  had 
an  unusual  number. 

In  1870  the  General  Conference  met  in  the  city  of  Memphis. 
This  was  the  second  session  of  that  body  after  the  devastations 
of  the  War  between  the  States  and  the  one  which  caught  the 


424 


History  of  Methodism. 


first  glimpses  of  returning  prosperity.  At  that  time  there  were 
in  the  Conference  such  well-known  men  as  T.  L.  Boswell,  W. 
C.  Johnson,  W.  T.  Harris,  James  A.  Heard,  K.  H.  Mahon,  and 
J.  H.  Evans. 

The  delegation  of  the  Memphis  Conference  in  the  General 
Conference  of  1014  was  as  follows:  Clerical — R.  H.  Pigue,  A. 
J.  Headers,  W.  A.  Freeman,  R.  W.  Hood,  H.  B.  Johnston,  and 
J.  W.  Blackard.  Lay — T.  B.  King,  J.  R.  Pepper,  J.  R.  Bond, 
H.  J.  Wright,  A.  W.  Biggs,  and  C.  J.  Barlow. 

Louisville  Conference. 

The  Louisville  Conference  was  organized  at  Hopkinsville, 
Ky.,  October  14,  184G,  with  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew  as  Pres- 
ident and  Rev.  A.  C.  De  Witt  as  Secretary.  The  formation  of 
the  Louisville  Conference  out  of  the  territory  of  the  old  Ken- 
tucky Conference  was  the  result  of  a  geographical  necessity. 
It  was  too  great  an  undertaking  to  remove  a  large  family  in  a 
common  covered  wagon  over  the  roughest  kind  of  roads  from 
the  Cumberland  Gap  to  Smithland,  on  the  Ohio  River,  or  from 
the  shores  of  the  Big  Sandy  River  to  the  borders  of  the  Ten 
nessee. 

The  boundary  of  the  Louisville  Conference  begins  at  a  point 
on  the  Ohio  River  a  few  miles  above  the  city  of  Louisville  and 
runs  almost  directly  south  to  the  Tennessee  State  line,  thence 
with  that  line  to  the  Tennessee  River,  thence  with  that  river  to 
its  mouth,  and  thence  with  the  Ohio  River,  including  Jefferson- 
ville,  Ind.,  to  the  beginning. 

Nearly  all  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  have  served  as  Presidents  of  the  Conference.  The  ex- 
ceptions are:  Soule,  Bascom,  Parker,  Tigert,  Ward,  Denny. 
Lambuth,  Waterhouse,  and  Mouzon.  In  1848  George  W.  Tay- 
lor presided  until  Bishop  Capers  arrived,  and  in  1830  Richard 
Tydings  was  President  until  Bishop  Andrew  came.  In  1862 
and  18G3,  as  no  bishop  was  present,  J.  H.  Linn  was  elects! 
President  and  presided  throughout  the  sessions. 

In  September,  1801,  the  members  of  the  Conference  residing 
in  the  southern  and  western  sections  of  the  State  found  them- 
selves cut  off  from  the  possibility  of  attending  the  regular  ses- 
sion, which  was  to  meet  early  in  October  at  Louisville,  by  the 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


425 


presence  within  its  borders  of  two  armies.  A  large  body  of 
Confederates,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Albert  Sidney  John- 
ston, was  in  camp  at  Bowling  Green,  and  a  still  larger  body  of 
Federals,  commanded  by  General  Buell,  was  near  Munford- 
ville.  They  were  daily  expected  to  join  battle.  Passes  were 
applied  for  by  the  preachers  and  denied,  and  suspicion  attached 
to  every  man  that  spoke  of  going  to  Conference.  So  the  twenty- 
three  preachers  thus  cut  off  met  at  Bethlehem,  Logan  County, 
and  proceeded  to  organize  and  conduct  a  Conference  in  due 
form.  Bishop  Soule  was  sent  for  and  came  and  took  the  chair. 

The  following-named  members  have  served  as  Secretaries  of 
the  Conference:  A.  C.  De  Witt,  J.  W.  Cunningham,  J.  H.  Owen, 
F.  A.  Morris,  N.  H.  Lee,  J.  A.  Lewis,  S.  C.  Allen,  D.  Spurrier, 
David  Morton,  John  J.  Tigert,  D.  S.  Campbell,  Gross  Alexan- 
der, W.  F.  Lloyd,  Joseph  S.  Chandler,  and  Sam  M.  Miller. 
Dr.  Alexander  had  the  longest  term,  he  having  served  sixteen 
years. 

The  traveling  preachers  composing  the  Conference  at  its  or- 
ganization numbered  sixty;  and  within  its  bounds  there  were 
at  that  time,  including  local  preachers,  15,129  white  members 
and  3,081  colored  members.  At  the  last  session,  held  in  Sep- 
tember, 1915,  there  were  reported  175  traveling  preachers, 
59,472  members,  and  167  local  preachers. 

Among  the  men  who  have  been  prominent  leaders  in  the 
Conference,  these  may  be  mentioned:  J.  W.  Cunningham  (only 
surviving  charter  member),  Edward  Stevenson,  D.D.,  Kichard 
Tydings,  George  W.  Taylor,  Edmund  W.  Sehon,  John  H.  Linn, 
D.D.,  N.  H.  Lee,  A.  H.  Bedford,  G.  R.  Browder,  R.  H.  Riv- 
ers, D.D.,  Thomas  Bottomley,  Joseph  B.  Cottrell,  D.D.,  W.  G. 
Miller,  D.D.,  David  Morton,  D.D.,  L.  B.  Davison,  H.  C.  Set- 
tle, D.D.,  Bishop  J.  J.  Tigert,  Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison,  I.  W. 
Emerson,  George  H.  Hayes,  D.D.,  B.  M.  Messick,  D.D.,  Gross 
Alexander,  S.T.D.,  R.  W.  Browder,  D.D.,  J.  W.  Lewis,  D.D., 
and  Frank  M.  Thomas,  D.D. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


sketches  of  annual  conferences  (continued). 
Louisiana  Conference. 

AT  the  session  of  the  Western  Conference  at  Mount  Geri 
_zim,  Ky.,  in  1804,  William  McKendree,  presiding  by  elec- 
tion in  the  absence  of  Bishop  Asbury,  faced  unusual  difficul- 
ties in  providing  a  pastoral  ministry  for  the  remote  Natchez 
territory  recently  opened  to  the  gospel  by  Tobias  Gibson,  then 
gone  to  his  reward.  His  answer  to  the  question  "What  is  the 
best  we  can  do  for  the  Natchez  country?"  was  the  appointment 
of  young  Learner  Blackman,  with  Nathan  Barnes  as  junior 
colleague.  Accompanied  by  that  eccentric  free  lance,  Lorenzo 
Dow,  who  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  way,  the  two  young 
men  started  from  Franklin,  Tenn.,  and  for  six  weeks  followed 
the  eight-hundred-mile  trace  to  their  destination.  Before  re- 
turning, Dow  crossed  the  Mississippi  Iiiver  and  preached  in 
Southwestern  Louisiana.  The  following  year  Blackman  in- 
cluded Louisiana  in  his  plans  for  extension  and  secured  the 
appointment  of  Elisha  W.  Bowman  to  Opelousas.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  Methodism  in  Louisiana,  the  germ  of  the  Lou- 
isiana Conference. 

Forty  years  later,  authorized  by  the  first  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  January, 
1847,  the  Louisiana  Conference  was  organized  in  the  old  French 
town  of  Opelousas,  in  a  territory  to  which  in  succession  min- 
isters had  been  sent  from  the  South  Carolina,  the  Western,  and 
the  Mississippi  Conferences. 

Among  the  ministers  transferred  to  the  new  Conference  with 
its  organization  were  Philo  M.  Goodwyn  and  his  younger 
brother,  Alexander  E.,  the  latter  of  whom  became  a  noted  pas- 
tor beyond  the  bounds  of  his  Conference,  and  Reynolds  S. 
Trippett,  an  Englishman,  who  preached  the  gospel  in  words 
that  charmed  and  sentences  that  fascinated  all  the  people. 
Another  noted  preacher  of  this  group  was  Stephen  J.  Davies, 
a  Welshman,  whose  fervor  of  spirit  and  intellectual  power  in 
the  pulpit  have  rarely  been  equaled.  Two  of  his  sons  became 
(426) 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


427 


ministers  in  the  Louisiana  Conference.  Of  this  group  of  men, 
Robert  J.  Harp  was  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable. 
He  had  neither  eloquence  nor  learning,  but  possessed  an  ad- 
ministrative ability  that  was  equal  to  the  many  heavy  demands 
that  at  various  times  came  upon  him.  He  visited  the  Tennes- 
see Conference  and  secured  a  number  of  volunteers  for  the  new 
and  difficult  field,  and  among  the  Louisiana  preachers,  his  own 
cotemporaries,  were  the  three  Whites,  B.  F.,  T.  B.,  and  Henry 
O.,  and  others  who  did  noble  and  distinguished  service  as  the 
result  of  young  Harp's  appeal.  Mr.  Harp  raised  the  money  for 
the  purchase  of  the  substantial  business  building  in  which  he 
afterwards  maintained  the  depository  of  the  Publishing  House 
and  in  which  to  this  day  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate 
is  published.  He  filled  pastorates,  districts,  and  agencies, 
edited  papers,  and  served  his  Church  with  unflagging  zeal  as 
an  itinerant  minister  more  than  sixty  years.  His  reminis- 
cences, destroyed  in  manuscript  by  fire,  would  have  been  in- 
valuable to  the  historian.  In  extreme  old  age  his  memory 
showed  no  signs  of  failure,  and  his  wisdom  and  faith  shone 
most  brightly.  John  Pipes  was  another  charter  member  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference,  a  modest  man  of  small  stature,  whose 
chief  characteristic  was  gentleness.  But  he  was  a  reformer 
before  the  reformation  in  the  temperance  cause  and  fought 
hard  battles  almost  single-handed  against  the  great  destroyer. 
Joseph  Cross,  under  whose  ministry  in  a  far  New  York  vil- 
lage, afterwards  as  pastor  of  Poydras  Street  Church,  New  Or- 
leans, the  life  of  Linus  Parker  was  profoundly  affected ;  P.  H. 
Deiffenwerth,  the  Alsatian,  a  remarkable  linguist;  and  James 
L.  Chapman,  a  digger  after  Hebrew  roots  and  all  archaeological 
lore,  are  also  to  be  mentioned.  The  name  of  Judge  D.  O.  Shat- 
tuck,  connected  prominently  with  the  history  of  Centenary 
College,  also  appears  on  the  roll  of  the  Louisiana  Conference. 

In  1848  there  were  added  to  this  galaxy  of  unusual  men 
James  L.  Wright,  remarkable  for  his  power  in  prayer,  and 
Richmond  Randle,  a  presiding  elder  who  gave  his  life  to  the 
service  of  the  Confederate  States  army  and  died  leaving  two 
sons,  Robert  and  Thomas  S.,  who  are  still  living  useful  lives 
in  the  ministry.  In  1849  the  name  of  Linus  Parker,  a  young 
law  student  from  New  Orleans,  appears  among  those  admitted 


428 


History  of  Methodism. 


on  trial  into  the  traveling  connection;  and  among  those  re- 
ceived by  transfer  is  Holland  N.  McTyeire,  thenceforth  the 
close  friend  of  the  young  probationer.  Mr.  McTyeire  was  pas- 
tor of  Steele  Chapel,  one  of  several  small  Churches  the  result 
of  too  rapid  colonization,  which  he  consolidated  into  what  was 
afterwards  Felicity  Street  Church,  where  Linus  Parker  suc- 
ceeded him  and  preached  ten  years.  John  C.  Keener's  name 
appears  in  the  list  of  appointments  as  presiding  elder  of  the 
New  Orleans  District.  He  was  a  theologian,  a  financier,  a 
writer,  an  administrator — a  man  of  the  most  striking  person- 
ality and  the  greatest  strength  of  character.  Here  was  a  group 
of  three  men  who  afterwards  were  associated  in  membership 
in  the  College  of  Bishops  of  their  Church.  An  equally  remark- 
able personality,  though  destined  to  less  prominence,  was  that 
of  John  Paule,  whose  name  subsequently  appears  spelled  Paw- 
ley,  a  German,  whose  assiduous  and  wide  labors  in  New 
Orleans  laid  the  foundations  upon  which  a  great  German 
constituency  of  Methodism  was  to  be  built.  Dr.  R.  H.  Rivers's 
name  appears  as  that  of  President  of  Centenary  College,  a 
great  preacher,  author,  and  educator;  and  A.  G.  Miller  is  ad- 
mitted on  trial,  the  sainted  and  efficient  head  master  of  the 
Centenary  College  Preparatory  Department  for  a  generation. 
His  son,  C.  C.  Miller,  is  an  active  member  of  the  Conference 
to-day. 

In  1851  Joseph  Birch  Walker  transferred  from  Tennessee 
and  became  the  pastor  of  McGehee  Chapel,  successor  to  Poy- 
dras  Street  Church,  destroyed  by  fire,  and  subsequently  known 
as  Carondelet  Street  Church.  For  sixteen  years  he  occupied 
this  pulpit.  He  possessed  a  noble  mien,  a  flashing  black  eye. 
and  preached  with  invariable  charm  and  often  with  great  power 
to  large  audiences  both  in  his  own  Church  and  at  the  many 
special  functions  for  which  he  was  constantly  in  demand.  Dr. 
Carter  said  of  him :  "He  walked  more  miles  and  wore  out  more 
shoes,  and  by  praying  and  singing  in  the  homes  carried  the  gos- 
pel to  more  domestic  circles  in  New  Orleans,  than  any  other 
preacher."  He  was  the  cotemporary  and  successful  rival  of 
the  celebrated  Theodore  Clapp,  the  Beecher  cf  the  Southwest, 
and  Dr.  Benjamin  M.  Palmer,  for  half  a  century  the  first  citi- 
zen of  Louisiana  and  the  greatest  preacher  in  the  South  for  a 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


429 


period  of  sixty  years.  Henry  C.  Thweat  came  this  year  from 
Virginia.  He  founded  Mansfield  Female  College,  became  its 
President,  and  until  disabled  by  gout  fulfilled  a  brilliant  min- 
istry. 

In  1858  Holland  N.  McTyeire  became  editor  of  the  Nashville 
Christian  Advocate,  with  which  appointment  his  name  thence- 
forth appears  in  the  Conference  minutes.  He  was  succeeded 
by  the  brilliant  Charles  G.  Gillespie  as  editor  of  the  New  Or- 
leans Christian  Advocate,  an  enterprise  initiated  by  Dr.  Keener 
and  for  which  he  had  especially  brought  about  the  transfer  of 
Mr.  McTyeire  to  Louisiana.  The  name  of  John  F.  Wynn  ap- 
pears this  year  among  those  on  trial.  Mr.  Wynn  is  one  of 
those  inconspicuous  men  who  have  gone  through  the  world  and 
by  personal  touch  influenced  more  men  and  women  to  become 
Christians  than  have  the  most  eloquent  men  by  pulpit  appeals. 
His  son,  Dr.  Robert  H.  Wynn,  is  the  accomplished  President  of 
Centenary  College. 

In  18G1  Charles  W.  Carter  was  admitted  on  trial.  No  bishop 
was  present,  and  Dr.  Keener  was  elected  President  and  Linus 
Parker  Secretary.  Mr.  Carter  came  to  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try with  scholastic  honors  from  both  Centenary  College  and 
the  University  of  Louisiana  Law  School.  He  was  not  only  a 
preacher  of  great  sermons;  he  had  a  voice  like  a  silver  trumpet 
and  a  personal  charm  and  simplicity  of  character  that  greatly 
endeared  him  to  his  brethren  and  fastened  to  him  with  "hoops 
of  steel"  a  smaller  group  of  friends.  He  succeeded  Charles  B. 
Galloway  as  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate  and 
served  four  years  as  President  of  Centenary  College.  He  left 
two  sons  of  distinguished  ability,  members  of  the  Louisiana 
Conference,  Briscoe  and  Thomas.  A  younger  son  is  in  the 
State  Sunday  school  work.  Briscoe  Carter  is  a  preacher  not  of 
the  type  of  his  father,  but  rugged  and  strong.  Prof.  Thomas 
Carter  is  an  accomplished  scholar  and  was  elected  twelve  years 
ago  to  the  chair  of  New  Testament  Greek  in  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity. 

In  1866  there  came  by  transfer  from  Texas  a  young  German 
by  the  name  of  J.  B.  A.  Ahrens,  graduate  of  an  American  col- 
lege and  the  University  of  Gbttingen.  He  consecrated  scholar- 
ship and  physical  virility  and  religious  genius  to  the  work  of 


430 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  German  Methodist  missions  in  Louisiana.  He  wrote,  trans- 
lated, preached,  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  and 
made  full  proof  of  a  remarkable  ministry  for  forty  years  in  the 
city  and  Church  of  his  adoption.  This  year  the  name  of  H.  N. 
McTyeire  disappears  from  the  Conference  roll  and  reappears  in 
the  list  of  bishops.  In  January,  1871,  the  name  of  John  C. 
Keener  also  disappears  from  the  roll,  to  find  a  place  beside  that 
of  his  great  cotemporary  in  the  College  of  Bishops.  This  year 
there  succeeded  Linus  Parker  as  pastor  of  Felicity  Street 
Church,  New  Orleans,  a  most  remarkable  personality  and  pul- 
pit genius,  John  Mathews,  from  the  Alabama  Conference. 
After  a  pastoral  ministry  of  nine  years  in  New  Orleans,  he 
went  to  Kansas  City  and  thence  to  St.  Louis,  where  his  genius 
made  him  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in  the  development  of 
Methodism.  W.  V.  Tudor,  a  polished  shaft  from  the  Baltimore 
Conference,  this  same  year  came  to  New  Orleans  as  pastor  of 
Carondelet  Street  Church,  where  he  succeeded  J.  B.  Walker, 
who  spent  the  next  four  years  as  pastor  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Galveston,  Tex. 

In  1S72  Christian  Keener,  eldest  son  of  the  Bishop,  a  well- 
educated  young  business  man  from  New  Orleans,  was  admit- 
ted on  trial.  He  was  a  great  administrator.  In  preaching  he 
had  something  of  the  subtlety  of  thought  that  characterized  his 
father,  but  nothing  of  his  brilliancy  of  diction  and  vivacity 
of  manner. 

In  1874  John  T.  Sawyer,  a  young  lawyer  with  bright  pros- 
pects for  worldly  success,  and  Alfred  E.  Clay,  a  young  English- 
man, who  had  come  to  America  attracted  by  our  Methodist 
system  of  education,  were  admitted  on  trial.  Mr.  Sawyer 
became  a  preacher  of  rare  evangelistic  power  and  a  remark- 
able Church  financier.  Mr.  Clay  served  his  day  chiefly  by  the 
organization  of  protective  work  for  children  in  Louisiana.  He 
was  the  founder  of  the  Louisiana  State  Society  for  the  Preven- 
tion of  Cruelty  to  Children. 

In  1885  the  name  of  Linus  Parker  appears  for  the  first  time 
in  the  list  of  appointments  as  editor  of  the  Xew  Orleans  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  though  he  had,  in  fact,  edited  the  paper  since 
Dr.  Keener's  election  to  the  episcopate.  In  December,  1875. 
that  weird  pulpit  phenomenon,  W.  E.  Munsey.  became  a  mem- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


431 


ber  of  the  Louisiana  Conference  by  transfer  from  either  the 
Baltimore  or  the  Holston  Conference — the  minutes  do  not 
state.  He  remained  but  one  year,  failing  in  health  and  com- 
pelled to  return.  The  following  interesting  entry  occurs  in  the 
list  of  appointments :  "Algiers,  to  be  supplied  by  Shepherd  Hal- 
sey  Werlein."  Dr.  Werlein  is  a  man  of  great  talent  and  fine 
accomplishments,  son  of  a  prominent  merchant  of  New  Orleans. 
His  ministry  from  the  beginning  attracted  large  congregations 
and  has  been  exceedingly  fruitful.  It  has  been  largely  spent 
in  other  cities,  but  is  now  at  First  Church,  New  Orleans.  A 
year  later  John  Hannon,  the  most  lovable  man  in  Virginia, 
came  to  New  Orleans  to  succeed  W.  E.  Munsey  at  St.  Charles 
Avenue  Church  (now  Rayne  Memorial)  and  spent  several  years 
of  eminent  usefulness  and  almost  unparalleled  popularity  in 
that  city.  This  year  (1877)  a  serious  effort  was  made  to  evan- 
gelize the  Acadian  French;  and  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Picot,  a  Cana- 
dian, was  appointed  as  associate  pastor  to  New  Iberia.  The  ef- 
fort was  not  successful,  owing  to  a  lack  of  continuity,  but  has 
in  more  recent  times  been  resumed  with  signal  results  under 
the  superintendency  of  the  Rev.  Martin  Hebert. 

In  1879  the  younger  son  of  Bishop  Keener  turned  from  books 
of  the  law  to  the  gospel  and  was  admitted  on  trial.  He  became 
a  man  of  great  usefulness,  especially  as  a  guardian  of  the  finan- 
cial interests  of  the  Church.  This  year  Felix  R.  Hill,  a  prince 
among  pastors,  came  by  transfer  from  Alabama  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  J.  B.  Walker  at  Carondelet  Street  Church. 

In  1883  the  name  of  Linus  Parker,  like  the  names  of  his  great 
cotemporaries  and  friends,  McTyeire  and  Keener,  disappeared 
from  the  roll  and  became  incorporated  with  the  list  of  the 
bishops.  This  year  a  very  able  and  distinguished  member  of 
the  Mississippi  Conference,  the  Rev.  Beverly  Carradine,  trans- 
ferred to  Louisiana  and  became  the  pastor  of  Rayne  Memo- 
rial Church.  He  afterwards  served  four  years  at  Carondelet, 
whence  he  went  to  Centenary,  St.  Louis.  Dr.  Carradine  con- 
ducted a  revival  of  great  power  in  New  Orleans.  He  had  a 
genius  for  seeing  the  spiritual  meaning  of  things  and  as  a  pas- 
tor was  diligent  to  a  point  of  disregard  of  all  else  save  the 
Robertsonian  sermons  he  delivered  weekly  from  his  pulpit. 
He  has  devoted  himself  to  evangelistic  work  for  some  years. 


432 


History  of  Methodism. 


Of  the  fruits  of  the  Carradine  revivals,  there  are  a  number  of 
ministers,  among  whom  perhaps  the  most  distinguished  are  the 
three  Knickerbockers,  who  have  all  attained  eminence  in  the 
pastorate  in  the  State  of  Texas. 

In  1886  Fitzgerald  S.  Parker  and  Franklin  N.  Parker,  sons 
of  Bishop  Parker,  then  recently  deceased,  were  admitted  on 
trial.  The  elder  is  now  the  accomplished  General  Secretary  of 
the  Epworth  League ;  and  the  younger,  a  scholar  and  preacher 
of  great  reputation,  is  Professor  of  Christian  Doctrine  in  the 
Candler  School  of  Theology,  Emory  University.  Closely  as- 
sociated with  these,  though  coming  into  the  Conference  three 
years  later,  were  J.  M.  Henry,  from  South  Carolina ;  by  trans- 
fer from  North  Georgia,  W.  H.  La  Prade,  a  man  of  pulpit 
strength  and  clearness  of  vision ;  and  J.  L.  Pierce,  nephew  of 
the  late  Bishop  Pierce,  from  North  Texas. 

In  1894  R.  W.  Vaughan,  the  hero  of  the  orphanage  work  in 
Louisiana,  was  admitted  on  trial,  and  a  number  of  brethren 
from  the  Mississippi  Conference  by  cession  of  the  Florida 
parishes.  Among  these  were  the  Rev.  Hiram  R.  Singleton,  who 
many  years  before  had  begun  his  ministry  in  Louisiana. 

Louisiana  has  in  it  much  missionary  territory,  but  has  also 
its  missionaries  in  the  foreign  field.  Among  these  are :  George 
D.  Parker,  in  Brazil ;  Dr.  J.  W.  Reed,  in  Korea ;  N.  E.  Joyner, 
who  has  endured  and  achieved  in  Mexico;  and  a  number  of 
women  who  have  been  sent  out  under  the  Woman's  Council. 
In  1900  Henry  Beach  Carre,  a  gifted  and  accomplished  scholar, 
was  admitted  into  the  Conference.  After  a  short  pastoral  ex- 
perience he  became  President  of  Centenary  College  and  sub- 
sequently Professor  of  the  English  Bible  and  Biblical  Theology 
in  Vanderbilt  University. 

From  a  membership  of  8,101,  of  whom  fifty-seven  were  local 
preachers  and  3,329  colored  people,  the  Conference  now  includes 
a  Church  membership  of  36,690  and  158  ministers  in  full  con- 
nection. The  offerings  for  missions  last  year  were  $10,712. 
Centenary  College  and  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate 
have  been  among  the  potent  forming  factors  in  the  work,  and 
the  great  cosmopolitan  city  of  New  Orleans,  out  of  which  have 
come  many  of  our  most  useful  and  distinguished  ministers  and 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


laymen,  must  also  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  chief  sources  of 
strength  to  the  Conference. 

Texas  Conference. 

What  is  now  the  State  of  Texas  was  previous  to  1836  a  prov- 
ince of  Mexico.  On  April  21  of  that  year,  as  the  result  of  the 
victory  of  San  Jacinto,  Texas  became  a  republic.  The  country, 
in  which  before  only  the  Koman  Catholic  religion  had  been 
tolerated,  was  thereupon  thrown  open  to  Protestant  mission- 
aries, and  the  Methodists  made  haste  to  formally  establish 
their  work.  But  for  an  indefinite  time  previous  to  1836  the 
region  between  the  Sulphur  Fork  and  the  main  stream  of  the 
Red  River,  consisting  of  parts  or  the  whole  of  several  present- 
day  Texas  counties,  was  supposed  to  belong  to  the  territory  of 
Arkansas.  Into  this  region  the  Methodist  itinerants  had  pene- 
trated as  early  as  1816.  Circuit  riders  of  the  Louisiana  Dis- 
trict of  the  Mississippi  Conference  had  also  crossed  the  Sabine 
River,  and,  against  the  opposition  of  Mexican  alcaldes,  had 
preached  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Spanish  mission  town  of 
Nacogdoches.  In  this  way  several  societies  of  Methodists  had 
been  organized  in  the  two  sections,  which  together  comprised 
what  was  then  known  as  the  "Redlands."  A  Methodist  class 
had  also  been  formed  in  the  Austin  Colony,  on  the  Brazos 
River,  as  early  as  1834. 

In  April,  1837,  the  Rev.  Martin  Ruter,  a  native  of  Massa- 
chusetts, a  ripe  scholar,  and  a  great  preacher,  was,  by  the  joint 
action  of  the  bishops  and  the  Mission  Board  at  New  York, 
named  as  superintendent  of  the  mission  in  Texas.  Robert 
Alexander,  of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  and  Littleton  Fowler, 
of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  were  appointed  to  be  his  as- 
sistants. Alexander  was  the  first  to  reach  the  field,  crossing 
the  Sabine  River  in  August,  within  a  few  weeks  after  receiving 
his  appointment.  He  began  at  once  to  publish  his  message  and 
continued  to  do  so  with  unabated  zeal  for  the  space  of  forty 
four  years.  Fowler  rode  from  Tennessee  by  the  way  of  the 
Red  River  region  of  Arkansas  and  joined  his  colleague,  Alexan- 
der, a  month  after  the  arrival  of  the  former.  Dr.  Ruter,  after 
a  long  and  tedious  journey  from  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  crossed  the 
Sabine  River  in  November,  1837,  and  enthusiastically,  as  also 
28 


434 


History  of  Methodism. 


with  great  wisdom  and  foresight,  took  up  the  work  of  his  new 
field.  After  visiting  the  main  settlements  lying  between  Nacog- 
doches and  San  Augustine  in  the  east  and  the  Austin  Colony 
in  the  west,  he  rode  to  Houston,  where  he  met  the  officials  of 
the  new  government  and  reached  before  the  Texas  Congress. 
While  there  he  laid  plans  for  the  organization  of  an  institu- 
tion of  learning,  which  when  established  was  known  as  Ruters- 
ville  College.  Returning  to  the  Austin  settlement,  he  con- 
tracted a  fever  from  which  he  died  on  May  16,  1838,  just  six 
months  after  his  arrival.  His  body  was  buried  in  the  soil  of 
the  State  to  which  his  life  had  been  dedicated  as  a  living  sacri- 
fice. Thrall,  the  Texas  historian,  says  that  Ruter  was  the  first 
Methodist  in  America,  and  possibly  in  the  world,  to  receive  the 
honorary  title  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  this  distinction  coming 
to  him  from  Transylvania  College. 

On  the  death  of  Dr.  Ruter  the  conduct  of  the  mission  fell  to 
Alexander  and  Fowler,  who  divided  the  territory  into  con- 
venient spheres  and  pushed  the  work  with  marvelous  success. 
Until  1830  the  mission  was  considered  a  district  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  Conference,  the  Red  River  societies,  before  referred 
to,  being  related  to  the  Conference  in  Arkansas. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1840,  the  Texas  Conference  was  formally 
organized  at  Rutersville,  Washington  County,  Bishop  Waugh 
presiding  and  Thomas  O.  Summers  acting  as  Secretary.  Nine- 
teen traveling  preachers  were  present,  ten  of  whom  were  pro- 
bationers. In  that  early  list  occur  such  names  as  Richard 
Owen,  J.  H.  Collard,  Jesse  Hord,  Chauncey  Richardson,  and 
Nathan  Shook. 

From  the  Texas  Conference  have  sprung  six  other  English- 
speaking  Conferences,  besides  the  organized  German  work  and 
the  two  Mexican  Conferences  of  the  border.  The  English- 
speaking  Conferences,  in  the  order  of  organization,  are  ;is  fol 
lows:  East  Texas,  organized  in  1844.  but  merged  with  the 
mother  Conference  in  1000;  the  West  Texas  Conference,  orig 
inally  called  the  Rio  Grande  Conference,  organized  in  1858; 
the  North  Texas  Conference,  at  first  called  Trinity,  organ- 
ized in  1800:  the  Northwesl  Texas  Conference,  which  later  be- 
came the  Central  Texas,  organized  in  1800;  the  New  Mexico 
Conference,  organized  in  1800;  and  the  new  Northwest  Texas 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


435 


Conference,  constituted  from  the  western  districts  of  the  orig- 
inal Northwest  or  Central  Conference,  organized  in  1910. 

Besides  the  pioneers  mentioned  above,  the  names  of  Whip- 
ple, Philpot,  Shappard,  John,  Davidson  (Asbury),  Littlepage, 
Smith  (E.  S.),  Mitchell,  Finley,  Thompson,  Alexander  (Isaac), 
Cravens,  and  Goodwin  have  been  written  with  the  history  of 
the  Church  in  both  the  Texas  and  what  was  once  the  East 
Texas  Conferences.  The  names  of  a  host  of  noble  laymen  also 
belong  to  this  period,  such  as  Ayers,  Shearn,  Winch,  Thomas, 
Bonner,  Orgain,  Behring,  and  Hurley.  Names  amongst  the 
representatives  of  this  Conference  in  the  General  Conference 
during  recent  years  are:  Clerical — James  Kilgore,  George  S. 
Sexton,  James  W.  Moore,  O.  T.  Hotchkiss,  E.  W.  Solomon,  S. 
R.  Hay,  F.  M.  Boyles,  J.  B.  Turrentine,  and  J.  W.  Mills.  Lay- 
men— T.  S.  Garrison,  D.  H.  Abernathy,  W.  L.  Dean,  L.  L.  Jes- 
ter, M.  D.  Fields,  and  W.  M.  Stone. 

North  Texas  Conference. 

The  General  Conference  of  1866  made  provision  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Trinity  Conference  by  cutting  off  a  portion 
of  the  territory  that  had  hitherto  been  occupied  by  the  East 
Texas  Conference.  Accordingly,  this  Conference  was  organ- 
ized as  the  Trinity  Conference,  which  name  was  continued 
until  1874,  when  it  was  changed  to  the  North  Texas  Conference. 
The  plan  of  division  had  been  agreed  on  at  the  session  of  the 
East  Texas  Conference  immediately  preceding  the  session  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1866,  and  that  body  confirmed  the 
plan  and  gave  authority  for  the  division  to  be  made. 

The  first  session  of  the  new  Conference  was  held  at  Sulphur 
Springs,  Tex.,  on  October  9,  1867.  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire  pre- 
sided, and  W.  C.  Young  was  elected  Secretary.  At  the  time  of 
its  organization  this  Conference  had  forty-four  members,  of 
whom  at  this  session  one  discontinued,  two  located,  and  three 
transferred  to  other  Conferences.  There  were  5  districts,  35 
pastoral  charges,  7,495  white  members,  588  colored  members, 
53  local  preachers,  IF  colored  preachers,  56  Sunday  schools,  228 
officers  and  teachers,  2,070  pupils,  and  67  church  buildings  val- 
ued at  $73,850. 

Though  this  Conference  has  more  than  once  given  off  terri 


//  is  I  ory  of  Me  th  od  is  m . 


Tory  to  other  Conferences,  it  now  has  255  traveling  preachers, 
11  districts,  18G  pastoral  charges.  7:5,0*1  members,  173  local 
preachers,  458  Sunday  schools,  4,41)2  officers  and  teachers,  57,- 
4S1  pupils,  435  church  buildings  valued  at  f 1,996,441,  107  par- 
sonages valued  at  $390,371,  and  other  property  valued  at  $172,- 
262. 

During  its  history  the  Conference  has  had  the  presidency  of 
the  bishops  as  follows:  Bishop  McTyeire,  four  times;  Bishops 
Key,  Candler,  and  Hoss,  three  times  each ;  Bishops  Doggett, 
Wightman,  Marvin,  Keener,  Kavanaugh,  Pierce,  Parker,  Har- 
grove, Galloway,  Wilson,  Hendrix,  Duncan,  Monzon,  and  Mc- 
Coy, twice  each  ;  and  Bishops  Haygood,  Granbery,  and  Murrah, 
once  each.  Seven  Secretaries  have  served  the  Conference,  in 
order  as  follows:  W.  C.  Young,  five  years;  W.  A.  Shook,  seven 
years ;  S.  J.  Hawkins,  two  years ;  H.  A.  Bourland,  three  years ; 
E.  C.  De  Jarnett,  five  years;  C.  L.  McWhirter,  nine  years;  J. 
M.  Xichols,  four  years;  J.  E.  Boache,  one  year;  B.  G.  Mood, 
thirteen  years. 

Among  its  members  and  leaders,  many  of  whom  have  filled 
prominent  places  in  the  Church  and  positions  of  trust  and  re- 
sponsibility, may  be  mentioned  the  following:  J.  W.  P.  Mc- 
Kenzie,  Bichard  Lane,  J.  M.  Binkley,  M.  H.  Xeely,  W.  EL 
Hughes,  T.  B.  Pierce,  J.  H.  McLean,  R.  M.  Powers,  E.  W.  Alder- 
son,  J.  W.  Hill,  G.  C.  Bankin,  John  M.  Moore,  C.  M.  Harless, 
W.  D.  Bradfield,  A.  L.  Andrews,  and  others  of  the  preachers. 
In  the  ranks  of  the  laity  these  are  worthy  of  mention:  Asa 
Holt,  William  Allen,  B.  M.  Burgher,  H.  N.  Tuck,  Sidney  Bass, 
B.  C.  Dial,  L.  Blaylock,  and  many  others. 

Central  Texas  Conference. 

This  was  first  known  as  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference, 
which  was  organized  and  held  its  first  session  in  Waxahachie, 
Ellis  County,  Tex.,  September  20  to  October  2,  1SGG;  Bishop  E. 
M.  Marvin,  President;  Rev.  F.  P.  Bay,  Secretary.  Although 
he  held  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  on  his  way  to  Texas, 
Bishop  Marvin  considered  this  his  first  Annual  Conference  to 
preside  over. 

The  Conference  roll  contained  forty-one  names  of  traveling 
preachers,  three  of  whom  were  superannuates  and  five  super- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences.  437 


numeraries,  leaving  only  thirty- three  effective  men  to  start  for- 
ward in  the  work  of  evangelizing  this  tremendous  territory. 
There  were  reported  3,927  white  members  and  52G  colored, 
making  a  total  of  4,453  members,  possessing  f42,900  worth  of 
Church  property.  There  was  continued  and  healthy  growth 
in  membership  and  wealth  until  the  year  1883,  at  which  time, 
although  there  was  one  whole  presiding  elder's  district  of  3,000 
members  ceded  to  the  Texas  Conference,  23,387  members  were 
reported.  The  roll  showed  154  names,  13  superannuates,  and 
9  on  the  supernumerary  list,  or  132  effective.  Thus  at  the 
end  of  the  first  seventeen  years  there  were  129J  churches,  worth 
|168,79G;  53  parsonages,  valued  at  f31,265;  and  other  Church 
property  worth  $76,672— a  total  of  $276,733,  which  was  an  in- 
crease of  668  per  cent. 

On  November  10-15,  1909,  the  forty-fourth  session  of  the  old 
Northwest  Texas  Conference  was  held  in  the  town  of  Stamford, 
Tex.,  Bishop  Joseph  S.  Key,  President;  Rev.  J.  M.  Barcus,  D.D., 
Secretary.  The  roll  contained  360  names.  Forty-six  were  su- 
perannuates and  15  supernumeraries,  or  299  on  the  effective 
list,  with  37  in  the  class  of  the  first  year  and  21  in  the  class  of 
the  second  year.  There  were  331  pastoral  charges,  with  church 
houses  valued  at  $1,877,216,  and  297  parsonages  worth  $500,- 
000.  There  were  sixteen  presiding  elders'  districts  and  four- 
teen district  parsonages,  valued  at  $53,000,  and  other  Church 
property  estimated  at  $1,141,000 — a  total  Church  property  val- 
uation of  $3,571,216,  which  was  a  gain  of  1,290  per  cent  in  the 
twenty-seven  years.  There  were  105,956  local  preachers  and 
members. 

At  this  session  plans  for  the  division  of  the  Conference  were 
adopted,  which  division  was  accomplished  by  act  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  in  1910.  The  new  Conference  retained  the 
old  name,  and  the  old  Conference  took  a  new  name,  Central 
Texas,  retaining  the  archives.  On  November  16-21,  1910,  in  the 
First  Methodist  Church  of  Waxahachie,  Tex.,  where  the  Con- 
ference was  first  organized,  the  Central  Texas  Annual  Confer- 
ence held  its  first  session;  or,  in  fact,  the  forty-fifth  session. 
Bishop  James  Atkins  presided,  and  John  M.  Barcus  was  Secre- 
tary. On  the  roll  there  were  224  names;  181  on  the  effective 
list,  with  a  Church  membership  of  78,980;  206  pastoral  charges; 


438 


History  of  Methodism. 


10  presiding  elders'  districts ;  193  parsonages,  valued  at  $357,- 
153;  618  societies,  with  4G7  houses  of  worship,  valued  at  fly 
383,551 ;  9  district  parsonages,  valued  at  (59,500 ;  school  proper- 
ty estimated  at  §908,000.  The  Central  Texas  Conference  em- 
braces much  of  the  finest  farming  and  grazing  lands  of  Texas 
and  is  blessed  with  a  most  delightful  and  healthful  climate. 

At  the  time  of  this  writing  (September,  191G)  there  are 
twelve  presiding  elders'  districts,  with  more  than  80,000  mem- 
bers. There  are  in  the  bounds  of  this  Conference  one  city  of 
100,000  population,  another  of  45,000,  eight  with  from  8,000  to 
15,000,  and  numerous  thriving  towns  and  villages. 

This  Conference  has  been  presided  over  by  twenty  different 
bishops,  as  follows:  E.  M.  Marvin,  I860,  1870,  and  1871;  II.  N. 
McTyeire,  18G7,  1874,  1879,  1S84, 1885,  and  18SG;  D.  S.  Doggett, 
18G8  and  187G;  W.  M.  Wightman,  1SG9  and  1877;  J.  C.  Keener, 
1872,  1878,  18SG,  and  189G ;  H.  H.  Kavanaugh,  1873  and  1881 ; 
G.  F.  Pierce,  1875  and  1880;  Linus  Parker,  1SS2  and  1883;  A. 
W.  Wilson,  1887, 1893,  and  1901 ;  E.  Pi.  Hendrix,  1888  and  1902 ; 
Joseph  S.  Key,  1889,  1890,  1908,  and  1909;  O.  P.  Fitzgerald, 
1891;  R.  K.  Hargrove,  1S92,  1894,  and  1899;  W.  W.  Duncan, 
1895  and  1903;  J.  C.  Granbery,  1897;  Charles  B.  Galloway, 
1898;  W.  A.  Candler,  1900  and  1907;  E.  E.  Hoss,  1904,  1905, 
and  190G;  James  Atkins,  1910,  1911,  1912,  and  1913;  James  H. 
McCoy,  1914  and  1915. 

In  all  these  fifty  years  the  Conference  has  had  seven  different 
Secretaries— namely :  Rev.  F.  I*.  Ray,  18GG,  1869,  1870,  1874, 
1875,  187G,  1877,  1879,  1880,  1881,  1882,  1883,  1884,  1885,  1886, 
1887,  and  1889;  Rev.  J.  L.  Crabb,  18G7;  Rev.  J.  S.  McCanrer, 
1868,  1871,  1872,  and  1873;  Rev.  G.  W.  Swofford,  1878  and 
1888;  Rev.  John  M.  Barcus,  from  1890  to  1910;  Rev.  John  R. 
Morris,  1911,  1912,  and  1913;  and  the  present  Secretary,  Rev. 
A.  D.  Porter,  1914  and  1915. 

There  are  main-  names  of  men  whose  lives  are  inseparably 
linked  with  the  history  of  this  Conference.  Space  will  permit 
the  mention  of  only  a  few,  and  those  are  of  men  who  had  a 
prominent  part  in  the  early  life  of  the  Conference.  There  rise 
up  such  as  Louis  B.  Whipple,  J.  Fred  Cox,  Thomas  W.  Stan- 
ford, T.  W.  Hines,  Thomas  G.  Gilmore,  Peter  W.  Gravis,  W.  R. 
D.  Stockton,  O.  M.  Adison,  J.  F.  Neal,  W.  G.  Veal,  Horace 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


439 


Bishop,  and  the  oue  surviving  charter  member  of  the  Confer- 
ence, John  P.  Mussett,  who,  after  this  long  half-century,  is 
still  known  as  the  shouting  prophet,  the  "holy  St.  John,"  the 
one  unanimously  selected  to  preach  the  "Year  of  Jubilee  Ser- 
mon" at  the  coming  session  in  Waxahachie,  November  15,  191G. 

The  Central  Texas  Conference,  as  such,  has  been  represented 
in  but  one  General  Conference,  that  of  1914.  The  names  of  the 
delegates  were  as  follows:  Clerical — F.  P.  Culver,  W.  B.  An- 
drews, J.  A.  Whitehurst,  H.  D.  Knickerbocker,  T.  S.  Arm- 
strong, John  R.  Nelson,  and  H.  A.  Boaz.  Lay — W.  Erskine 
Williams,  F.  F.  Downs,  J.  M.  Robertson,  W.  J.  Barcus,  J.  H. 
Garner,  Ocie  Speer,  W.  C.  Streety,  C.  V.  Bailey. 

And  what  more  shall  we  say?  For  the  time  would  fail  us  to 
tell  of  that  host  of  other  preachers  and  noble  laymen  and  con- 
secrated women  "who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,  obtained  promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions, 
quenched  the  violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  and 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens." 

West  Texas  Conference. 

The  West  Texas  Conference  was  constituted  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1858,  and  for  the  first  eight  years  of  its  history 
it  was  known  as  the  Rio  Grande  Conference.  It  embraced  "all 
that  part  of  the  State  of  Texas  lying  west  and  southwest  of  a 
line  beginning  at  the  mouth  of  the  Guadalupe  River,  thence  up 
said  river  to  where  it  is  crossed  by  the  road  from  San  Antonio 
to  Fredericksburg,  thence  on  said  road  to  Fort  Mason,  thence 
due  north  to  the  Colorado  River,  thence  up  said  river  to  the 
Big  Spring,  thence  due  north  to  the  State  line." 

The  first  appointments  were  made  by  Bishop  George  F. 
Pierce  at  the  session  of  the  Texas  Conference  at  Austin  in  No- 
vember, 1858,  and  its  first  session  was  held  at  Goliad  in  No- 
vember, 1859.  Bishop  Pierce  was  delayed  and  did  not  reach 
Goliad  until  near  the  close  of  the  Conference.  Dr.  Jesse  Boring 
was  elected  President,  and  John  W.  DeVilbiss,  Secretary. 

Twelve  members  were  present  at  this  Conference,  and  their 
names  are  worthy  of  record :  Dr.  Jesse  Boring,  Robert  H.  Bel- 
vin,  James  W.  Cooley,  Ivy  H.  Cox,  John  W.  DeVilbiss,  Gus- 


440 


History  of  Methodism. 


tavus  Elly,  Robert  W.  Pierce,  R.  P.  Thompson,  August  Engel, 
David  W.  Fly,  P.  W.  Hobbs,  aud  Frederick  Vordenbaumen. 
At  this  first  session  H.  G.  Horton  was  received  by  transfer 
from  the  Georgia  Conference,  and  of  the  heroic  men  who 
planted  Methodism  on  this  sparsely  settled  frontier  he  alone 
remains,  superannuated  for  some  years,  but  still  active  as  Sec- 
retary of  the  Conference  Board  of  Church  Extension  and  a 
frequent  contributor  to  the  Church  papers. 

The  membership  reported  was  1,257  white  and  138  colored. 
There  were  twenty-three  Sunday  schools,  with  649  scholars. 
The  Church  had  already  enterprised  several  educational  in- 
stitutions. Dr.  Joseph  Cross  was  appointed  President  of  San 
Antonio  Female  College  (the  Conference  was  meeting  in  the 
building  of  Paine  Female  Institute),  and  Dr.  Jesse  Boring  was 
appointed  agent  for  Alamo  College,  a  school  for  boys,  which  the 
Conference  proposed  to  establish  in  San  Antonio. 

In  the  appointments  for  this  year  there  were  three  districts, 
with  thirty  pastoral  charges,  ten  of  which  were  left  to  be 
supplied.  Eight  years  later  the  General  Conference  of  1866 
changed  the  name  of  the  Conference  to  West  Texas  and  added 
to  its  boundaries  the  territory  now  embraced  in  the  San  Marcos 
District.  The  membership  that  year  was  2,113  white  and  701 
colored. 

There  were  other  men  prominent  in  the  Conference  in  those 
early  days  whose  names  should  be  preserved  :  Boswell  Gillett 
and  his  two  sons,  James  T.  and  John  S.,  John  L.  Harper,  O.  A. 
Fisher,  Eli  Y.  Seale,  Buckuer  Harris,  W.  J.  Joyce,  now  an  aged 
superannuate,  Oliver  B.  Adams,  Thomas  Meyers.  W.  R.  D. 
Stockton,  and  Jesse  Hord. 

From  the  organization  of  the  Conference  the  German  work 
w  as  included  in  the  appointments,  and  one  of  the  districts,  first 
the  New  Braunfels  and  then  the  Fredericksburg,  w  as  composed 
of  ( terman  preachers.  In  the  minutes  of  1S71  appears  the  name 
of  the  first  Mexican  preacher,  Alejo  Hernandez,  in  charge  of 
the  mission  to  the  Mexicans  at  Corpus  Christi,  whose  conver- 
sion marked  the  beginning  of  our  missions  in  Mexico  and  on 
the  Texas-Mexican  border. 

The  General  Conference  of  1902  changed  the  boundaries,  giv- 
ing to  the  West  Texas  Conference  the  territory  now  embraced 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


441 


in  the  Austin  District.  The  statistics  of  the  Conference  for 
1915  show  194  traveling  preachers,  39,809  local  preachers  and 
members,  churches  and  parsonages  valued  at  $1,735,172,  4,747 
Upworth  League  members,  and  39,190  enrolled  in  the  Sunday 
schools. 

Of  present-day  leaders  in  the  Conference  and  men  of  con 
nectional  influence  may  be  mentioned  the  following:  W.  D. 
Bradfield,  Sterling  Fisher,  J.  E.  Harrison,  V.  A.  Godbey,  T.  F. 
Sessions,  A.  W.  Wilson,  J.  W.  Cowan,  F.  B.  Buchanan,  J.  H. 
Groseclose,  Thomas  Gregory,  S.  B.  Johnston,  and  J.  D.  Scott. 

Northwest  Texas  Conference. 

This  Conference  was  organized  at  Clarendon,  Tex.,  November 
9,  1910,  with  Bishop  James  Atkins  in  the  chair.  A.  L.  Moore, 
of  Vernon  Station,  was  elected  Secretary.  At  this  time  the 
Conference  was  composed  of  six  districts:  Abilene,  Claren- 
don, Colorado,  Plainview,  Stamford,  and  Vernon.  S.  A.  Barnes 
was  presiding  elder  of  the  Abilene  District;  J.  G.  Miller,  of 
the  Clarendon  District;  Simeon  Shaw,  of  the  Colorado  Dis- 
trict; G.  S.  Hardy,  of  the  Plainview  District;  J.  G.  Putman, 
of  the  Stamford  District;  and  J.  H.  Stewart,  of  the  Vernon 
District. 

Geographically,  this  Conference  covers  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  fertile  belts  of  Texas.  Large  numbers  of  people  are  rapid- 
ly settling  up  the  country.  The  atmosphere,  especially  on  the 
plains,  is  full  of  ozone,  which  so  thoroughly  invigorates  the 
people  that  great  progress  is  being  made  along  all  lines. 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Conference,  in  the  fall  of  1911, 
three  new  districts,  Amarillo,  Big  Springs,  and  Hamlin,  were 
made.  O.  P.  Kiker  was  placed  on  the  Amarillo  District;  W. 
H.  Terry,  on  the  Big  Springs  District ;  and  G.  S.  Hardy,  on  the 
Hamlin  District. 

Some  of  the  earlier  leaders  of  the  Conference  were:  J.  G.  Mil- 
ler, J.  G.  Putman,  Jerome  Duncan,  George  S.  Wyatt,  G.  S. 
Hardy,  S.  A.  Barnes,  J.  H.  Stewart,  J.  M.  Sherman,  J.  T. 
Griswold,  C.  N.  N.  Ferguson,  B.  W.  Dodson,  and  J.  W.  Story. 

The  Conference  has  had  two  junior  colleges  from  the  first — 
namely,  Clarendon,  located  at  Clarendon,  Tex.,  and  Stamford, 
located  at  Stamford,  Tex.  The  property  of  Clarendon  College  is 


U'2 


History  of  Methodism. 


now  valued  at  $103,300.  Rev.  George  S.  Slover  is  President. 
He  has  had  charge  for  a  number  of  years  and  is  one  of  the  most 
successful  college  men  in  Texas.  Stamford  College  is  valued 
at  $150,000.  Rev.  J.  W.  Hunt,  one  of  the  leading  young  men 
of  the  Conference,  has  accepted  the  presidency  of  this  college. 
While  this  school  has  done  a  good  work  in  the  past,  yet  under 
the  present  management  greater  things  will  be  accomplished. 
Seth  Ward  College,  at  Plain  view,  Tex.,  was  presented  to  the 
Conference  free  of  debt  and  with  an  endowment  of  more  than 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  The  Conference  accepted  it  and  placed 
it  on  an  equal  footing  with  Clarendon  and  Stamford.  This 
college  was  a  great  stimulus  to  Methodism  on  the  South  Plains, 
but  in  the  spring  of  1916  it  was  completely  destroyed  by  fire 
and  will  not  be  rebuilt.  The  Methodists  will  give  their  atten- 
tion to  the  equipment  of  the  two  junior  colleges  left. 

The  policies  of  the  Conference  have  been  broad  from  the 
first.  Every  one  seemed  to  realize  that  the  Church  must  keep 
pace  with  the  progress  of  the  times  and  the  country,  and  all 
have  heroically  gone  forward  building  jip  the  kingdom. 

The  women  of  the  Conference  are  looking  well  into  their  de- 
partment of  Church  work  and  have  gained  the  approval  of  all 
who  are  acquainted  with  what  they  are  doing.  In  these  few 
years  many  efficient  workers  among  the  women  have  been  de- 
veloped. 

At  first  there  was  no  District  League,  neither  any  Confer- 
ence League.  But  in  June,  1910,  at  Vernon,  Tex.,  under  the 
leadership  of  R.  T.  Stuart,  President  of  the  Conference  Ep- 
worth  League  Board,  a  Conference  League  was  organized,  and 
now  District  Leagues  are  being  formed. 

The  Sunday  schools  are  rapidly  developing.  In  many  places 
those  who  are  leading  are  studying  and  discussing  modern 
methods  and  plans  whereby  much  interest  is  being  created. 

The  Boards  of  Missions  and  Church  Extension  are  laying 
deep  and  well  the  foundation  for  a  great  Methodism  in  this 
Conference.  All  policies  thrill  with  life  and  look  at  once  to  the 
incarnation  of  the  spirit  and  aim  of  the  Master. 

Some  of  the  younger  men  who  are  gradually  rising  to  be 
leaders  are:  J.  W.  Hunt,  H.  M.  Long,  C.  W.  Hearon,  A.  L. 
Moore,  M.  Phelan,  A.  W.  Waddill,  W.  E.  Lyon.  M.  M.  Beavers, 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


443 


A.  L.  Bowman,  W.  M.  Lane,  George  W.  Shearer,  R.  A.  Clem- 
ents, A.  W.  Hall,  and  J.  E.  Stephens. 

This  Conference  is  composed  largely  of  young  men.  The 
field  is  attractive,  and,  though  new,  it  is  one  of  the  best  in 
Texas. 

Missouri  Conference. 

At  about  the  same  time,  it  is  believed,  that  the  Lewis  and 
Clark  expedition  arrived  at  the  post  of  St.  Louis  on  its  return 
from  claiming  an  empire  in  the  Northwest  (that  is,  about 
September  23,  180G)  the  Rev.  John  Travis  was  by  the  Western 
Conference  assigned  to  a  circuit  described  as  "Missourie."  This 
Conference  met  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
Travis  was  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  be  appointed  to  work 
in  that  vast  region  known  as  Upper  Louisiana,  what  is  now 
nearly  half  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  Even  before  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  American 
settlers  had  begun  to  enter  this  region,  but  especially  was  this 
true  after  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.  From  St.  Louis 
southward  settlements  were  rapidly  forming,  and  the  country 
was  being  generally  occupied.  It  was  along  the  littoral  of 
the  Mississippi,  amongst  these  newly  formed  settlements,  that 
Travis  laid  out  his  work.  His  presiding  elder  was  William  Mc- 
Kendree,  and  the  district  which  he  served  was  known  as  the 
Cumberland  District.  It  was  McKendree  who  planned  and 
exploited  this  far-reaching  work  in  the  Missouri  country. 

In  the  settlements  to  which  Travis  went  he  found  enough 
Methodists  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  society.  It  is  even  probable, 
according  to  the  authority  of  Dr.  C.  C.  Woods,  of  the  St.  Louis 
Christian  Advocate,  that  Methodist  preaching  had  been  heard 
in  this  region  as  early  as  1798.  In  that  year  the  Rev.  John 
Clark,  a  local  preacher,  had  invaded  the  land  from  the  Illinois 
side.  He  is  thought  to  have  formed  a  class  of  members  in 
what  is  now  St.  Louis  County.  It  appears  also  that  Rev.  Jesse 
Walker  and  Rev.  Lewis  Garrett  had,  under  the  direction  of  Mc- 
Kendree, made  a  preaching  tour  into  Missouri  in  the  early 
part  of  1806,  previous  to  the  entry  of  Travis.  McKendree,  as 
presiding  elder,  came  in  the  summer  of  1807  and  led  in  the 
preaching  done  at  the  first  camp  meeting  ever  held  in  Missouri. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Abbott  Goddard,  James  Gwin,  and 


444 


History  of  Methodism. 


Jesse  Walker.  These  were  all  famous  frontier  preachers  in  the 
Western  Conference.  Landing  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, they  walked  forty  miles,  carrying  their  baggage,  to 
the  scene  of  the  camp  meeting.  The  services  of  John  Travis 
were  fruitful  from  the  beginning.  At  the  session  of  the  Con- 
ference of  1807  he  reported  two  circuits  as  having  been  formed 
in  Missouri — the  Missouri,  with  fifty-six  members,  and  the 
Maramac,  with  fifty  members.  For  the  years  1807-08  Jesse 
Walker  was  appointed  to  serve  on  the  Missouri  Circuit  and 
Edmund  Wilcox  on  the  Maramac.  It  was  at  the  end  of  this 
term  that  William  McKendree  was  elected  bishop,  the  first  na- 
tive American  to  hold  that  office.  The  new  bishop,  with  the 
westering  spirit  still  moving  in  his  soul,  hurried  to  his  old  field 
of  labor,  crossed  the  Mississippi  River  at  a  place  near  the  city 
of  Alton,  and  assisted  Jesse  Walker  in  holding  the  first  camp 
meeting  held  in  the  Missouri  country  north  of  the  Missouri 
River.  From  this  point  he  pushed  even  farther  westward, 
crossing  the  Missouri  River  one  hundred  miles  above  its  mouth, 
where  he  held  another  camp  meeting  on  the  Maramac  Circuit. 
The  result  of  these  labors  was  a  new  circuit  reported  to  the 
next  Conference,  with  a  total  of  two  hundred  members  in  the 
Missouri  region. 

Dr.  Woods  notes  that  the  entrance  of  Methodism  into  the 
Towns  of  Missouri  was  slow,  these  being  settled  largely  by  the 
French  from  Illinois  and  Lower  Louisiana  and  by  immigrants 
from  Canada.  Up  to  the  organization  of  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence in  181G  only  a  few  classes  had  been  formed  in  the  towns. 
It  was  1821  before  a  society  had  been  formed  in  St.  Louis.  In 
the  American  settlements,  however,  the  work  prospered  greatly, 
bo  that  at  the  Conference  of  1800  the  number  of  members 
reported  was  double  that  of  the  two  previous  years.  In  the 
following  year  a  Church  was  organized  in  the  town  of  Cape 
Girardeau,  which  was  probably  the  first  Methodist  Church 
formed  in  any  Missouri  town. 

Tii  1811-12  came  a  series  of  astonishing  natural  occurrences, 
chief  of  which  were  the  great  earthquake  and  land-sinks  along 
the  Mississippi  shore,  which  filled  the  minds  of  the  people 
with  solemn  amazement  and  forebodings.  It  is  of  record  that 
these  effects  were  not  unfavorable  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


445 


the  serious  state  of  the  public  miud  leadiug  to  a  contemplation 
of  unworldly  subjects. 

The  Missouri  District  of  the  Western  Conference  was  formed 
in  1814,  and  at  the  Conference  of  1815  the  membership  was  re- 
ported to  be  941.  The  appointments  for  this  year  were:  Sam- 
uel H.  Thompson,  presiding  elder;  New  Madrid,  Philip  Davis; 
Cape  Girardeau,  Jesse  Haile;  Spring  River,  to  be  supplied; 
Saline,  Thomas  Wright ;  Bellevue,  William  Stevenson ;  Cold  Wa- 
ter, Benjamin  Proctor;  Missouri,  Jacob  Whiteside;  Boon's  Lick, 
Joseph  Piggott.  The  Missouri  Conference  was  ordered  to  be 
formed  at  the  session  of  the  Western  Conference  in  1816.  The 
minutes  of  1817  show  two  districts,  the  Illinois  and  the  Mis 
souri.  Of  these,  Samuel  H.  Thompson  was  presiding  elder  of 
the  first  and  Jesse  Walker  of  the  other.  The  lineal  offspring 
of  this  Conference  have  been  a  number  of  Methodist  bodies,  as 
follows:  Arkansas  Conference,  1836;  Indian  Mission  Confer- 
ence, 1844;  St.  Louis  Conference,  1846;  Little  Rock  Confer- 
ence, 1854;  Western  Conference,  1870;  White  River  Confer- 
ence, 1870 ;  Southwest  Missouri  Conference,  1871 ;  Denver  Con- 
ference, 1874;  and  Montana  Conference,  1878.  From  the 
Indian  Mission  Conference  have  sprung  the  East  and  West 
Oklahoma  Conferences,  while  the  Arkansas  and  White  River 
have  been  merged  into  the  North  Arkansas  Conference  and  the 
Western  Conference  into  the  Missouri  Conference.  The  Mis- 
souri Conference  also  claims  a  maternity  of  the  Illinois  Confer- 
ence, which  was  an  independent  body  previous  to  1866.  The 
delegations  of  the  Missouri  Conference  in  the  last  two  General 
Conferences  have  been  as  follows :  1910,  clerical — C.  M.  Bishop, 
W.  A.  Hanna,  O.  E.  Brown,  A.  C.  Johnson,  J.  J.  Reid ;  lay — B. 
J.  Casteel,  J.  J.  Hewitt,  J.  A.  Leavell,  M.  E.  Lawson,  A.  P.  Set- 
tle. 1914,  clerical— R.  H.  Cooper,  A.  C.  Browning,  B.  P.  Tay- 
lor, S.  M.  Robinson ;  lay — C.  M.  Hay,  M.  E.  Lawson,  P.  M.  Cul- 
ver, R.  T.  Bond,  and  H.  G.  Sipple. 

Southwest  Missouri  Conference. 

The  Southwest  Missouri  Conference  was  formed  by  the  divi- 
sion of  the  St.  Louis  Conference  at  its  session  at  Boonville  in 
1870.  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire  presided,  and  W.  M.  Prottsman 
was  Secretary.   Dr.  David  R.  McAnally,  in  the  fullness  of  his 


440 


History  of  Methodism. 


strength,  edited  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate.  Dr.  Joseph 
Boyle,  of  St.  Louis,  was  at  Boonville,  sick  in  the  City  Hotel,  and 
soon  after  passed  away.  Dr.  George  Clinton,  of  St.  Louis,  also 
was  in  failing  health  and  died  during  the  year.  No  more  bril- 
liant preacher  was  in  the  old  St.  Louis  Conference  than  Dr.  C. 
D.  N.  Campbell,  of  Kansas  City.  Dr.  Nathan  Scarritt  held  a 
supernumerary  relation.  Joseph  Bennett  and  G.  M.  Winton 
were  among  the  stalwart  figures  of  the  Conference.  Among  the 
younger  men  in  the  very  prime  of  life  were:  W.  C,  J.  E.,  and 
Milton  Adkisson,  T.  M.  Cobb,  and  C.  C.  Woods.  S.  S.  Bryant, 
though  advancing  in  years,  was  mentally  alert  and  a  very  clear 
and  strong  preacher.  John  A.  Murphy  and  M.  M.  Pugh  were 
filling  important  places.  Dr.  C.  P.  Jones,  pastor  of  Boonville 
Church,  was  one  of  the  strongest  preachers  in  the  Conference. 
Dr.  J.  W.  Lewis  and  Gen.  L.  M.  Lewis  preached  in  St.  Louis. 
A  popular  pastor  was  G.  W.  Horn,  who  died  more  than  thirty 
years  ago. 

The  membership  in  this  territory  while  part  of  the  St.  Louis 
Conference  was  10,077.  The  original  name  given  was  West  St. 
Louis  Conference,  which  was  changed  to  Southwest  Missouri  by 
the  General  Conference  of  1874.  The  first  session  of  the  South- 
west Missouri  Conference  was  held  in  Kansas  City  in  1871  by 
Bishop  Doggett,  who  presided  again  at  Clinton  in  1878.  W. 
M.  Prottsman  was  Secretary  and  continued  in  that  office  until 
his  transfer  to  the  Pacific  Conference,  in  1875.  In  187G  C.  C. 
Woods  was  elected  Secretary  and  holds  the  record  in  the  Church 
of  forty  years'  continuous  service  in  that  office.  Bishop  Pierce 
presided  in  1872  and  1881;  Bishop  Wightman,  in  1873  and 
1879 ;  Bishop  Keener,  in  1874, 1875,  and  1880 ;  Bishop  McTyeire, 
in  1870  and  also  in  188G;  Bishop  Marvin,  in  1877;  Bishop 
Granbery,  in  1882,  1885,  1880,  1809,  and  1000;  Bishop  Wilson, 
in  1883  and  1902 ;  Bishop  Parker,  in  1884 ;  Bishop  Hendrix,  in 
1887,  1888,  1894,  1904,  1905,  1914,  1915,  and  191 G;  Bishop  Key, 
in  1890,  190G,  and  1907;  Bishop  Hargrove,  in  1891;  Bishop 
Galloway,  in  1892,  1896,  and  1903;  Bishop  Haygood,  in  1893 ; 
Bishop  Duncan,  in  1895;  Bishop  Fitzgerald,  in  1897;  Bishop 
Candler,  in  1898,  1901,  and  1909;  Bishop  Morrison,  in  1908; 
Bishop  Denny,  in  1910,  1911,  and  1912;  and  Bishop  Hoss,  in 
191:5. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences.  117 


As  first  formed  the  Conference  territory  included  all  of  Mis- 
souri south  of  the  Missouri  River  and  west  of  the  Gasconade 
and  Big  Piney  Rivers  and  the  Range  Line  from  Cedar  Bluff 
south  to  Arkansas.  Later  the  town  of  Cabool,  just  west  of  this 
line,  was  given  to  the  St.  Louis  Conference.  In  1906  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Western  Conference  was  added  to  the  Southwest 
Missouri  Conference,  as  the  Western  District.  At  the  General 
Conference  the  charges  comprised  in  this  district  were  given 
in  part  to  the  Missouri  Conference,  the  remainder  being  left 
with  the  Southwest  Missouri  Conference. 

The  present  membership  of  the  Conference  shows  an  increase 
since  1870  of  28,593,  as  the  last  reported  membership  was  38,- 
070.  The  increase  in  the  value  and  general  condition  of  proper- 
ty, in  churches,  parsonages,  schools,  etc.,  has  been  much  greater, 
relatively,  than  in  membership  and  now  approximates  two  mil- 
lion dollars. 

Members  of  the  Southwest  Missouri  Conference  active  in 
recent  years  in  the  General  Conference  are:  Clerical — C.  H. 
Briggs,  Paul  H.  Linn,  W.  T.  McClure,  W.  H.  Winton,  J.  E. 
Alexander,  J.  E.  McDonald,  W.  G.  Beasley.  Lay — C.  A.  Cal- 
vird,  Dr.  W.  M.  Campbell,  J.  R.  Miller,  and  J.  W.  Talbot. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Woods  is  the  only  charter  member  of  the  Confer- 
ence now  in  the  active  relation  who  has  received  an  appoint- 
ment each  year  of  its  history.  Rev.  C.  H.  Briggs  joined  the 
Conference  at  the  session  when  the  territory  was  set  off  from 
the  St.  Louis  Conference,  at  Boonville,  Mo.,  in  1870.  He  has 
been  continuously  in  active  work  since  that  time,  although 
called  to  important  work  in  other  Conferences  for  three  years 
ad  interim. 

St.  Louis  Conference. 
The  St.  Louis  Conference  was  formed  in  1846  and  included 
all  of  Missouri  south  of  the  Missouri  River.  In  1870  the  South- 
west Missouri  Conference  was  cut  off  from  it,  and  the  bound- 
ary line  between  the  two  Conferences  became  the  Gasconade 
River  from  its  confluence  with  the  Missouri  River  to  the  mouth 
of  Big  Piney  River,  thence  south  along  that  stream  to  its  head- 
waters near  Cedar  Bluff,  thence  south  along  the  east  line  of 
Range  Eleven,  Ark.  In  1898  the  town  of  Cabool,  which  was 
perhaps  a  half  mile  west  of  this  line,  was  put  in  the  St.  Louis 


448 


History  of  Methodism. 


Conference,  and  it  so  remains.  In  1902  the  city  of  Cairo,  in  the 
Illinois  Conference,  was  put  in  the  St.  Louis  Conference,  but 
was  restored  to  the  Illinois  Conference  in  1910.  Hence  the 
present  boundary  is  as  it  was  when  the  Conference  was  formed, 
save  the  one  addition  of  the  town  of  Cabool. 

The  city  of  St.  Louis  has  been  one  of  the  most  fruitful  fields 
of  Methodism,  and  particularly  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South. 
In  the  Metropolitan  District  of  St.  Louis  there  are  twenty-five 
churches,  valued  at  $1,100,000.  In  no  field  has  the  local  Church 
extension  movement  attained  such  proportions  as  in  this  fa- 
vored city.  Its  laymen  have  contributed  from  time  to  time 
large  sums  to  the  work  of  advancing  Church  extension  and 
education.  One  of  the  largest  gifts,  perhaps  the  very  largest 
single  gift,  ever  received  by  the  Church  was  that  of  the  Barnes 
Hospital  Foundation,  a  property  now  valued  at  nearly  or  quite 
two  million  dollars. 

The  present  membership  of  the  Church  in  the  St.  Louis  Dis- 
trict is  10,517,  while  the  membership  in  the  entire  Conference 
is  40,484.  Outside  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis  the  Conference  has 
jurisdiction  over  a  fine  rural  territory,  including  some  of  the 
rich  mineral  reaches  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  as  well 
as  fruitful  sections  of  alluvial  lands  along  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri  Kivers.  There  are  in  these  parts  some  populous  and 
prosperous  towns.  The  town  of  Cape  Girardeau,  where  the  Con- 
ference held  its  centennial  session  in  1916,  is  said  to  be  the 
first  municipality  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  in  which  a 
Methodist  society  was  organized. 

At  the  organization  of  the  Conference,  in  1846,  there  ap- 
peared in  the  list  of  appointments  the  name  of  N.  G.  Berry- 
man,  who  was  afterwards  known  as  one  of  the  few  last  sur- 
viving members  of  the  General  Conference  of  1844.  Charles 
B.  Parsons,  a  famous  preacher,  who  had  once  been  an  actor, 
was  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Street  Church,  St.  Louis.  John  L. 
Lacey,  Jephthah  M.  Kelly,  Elijah  Perkins,  Jesse  Green,  and 
Thomas  Wallace  were,  with  Berryman,  the  presiding  elders. 
Elisha  Headlee  was  one  of  the  circuit  preachers.  With  this  Con 
ference  were  afterwards  associated  such  names  as  Marvin,  Mc- 
Anally,  Finney,  Miller,  Shackelford,  Winton,  Godbey,  Leftwich, 
Browning,  Prottsman,  Ditzler,  Rader,  Hawkins,  and  others. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences, 


441) 


The  modern  lists  of  the  Conference  have  carried  such  names 
as  John  Mathews,  great  pastor;  L.  M.  Lewis,  Christian  gentle- 
man and  apostolic  teacher;  Beverly  Carradine,  evangelistic  in 
pulpit  and  parish;  Felix  R.  Hill,  record-making  pastor;  S.  H. 
Werlein,  by  nature  and  by  culture  an  orator;  James  W.  Lee, 
scholar  and  preacher  of  the  first  rank;  Charles  M.  Hawkins, 
faithful  to  every  trust;  L.  E.  Todd,  resourceful  leader;  Theo 
dore  Copeland,  courteous  companion  and  faithful  friend;  and 
very  many  others. 

The  representatives  in  the  General  Conferences  of  1010  and 
1914  were:  Clerical— W.  F.  McMurry,  M.  T.  Haw,  N.  B.  Hen 
ry,  S.  H.  Wainright,  J.  M.  Moore,  R.  L.  Russell,  P.  H.  Linn,  J. 
M.  Bradley.  Lay — John  W.  Vaughan,  B.  G.  Shackelford,  C.  L. 
Whitener,  R.  A.  Sparks,  B.  H.  Marbury,  and  J.  P.  Mabrey. 

North  Arkansas  Conference. 

The  North  Arkansas  Conference  resulted  from  the  union,  in 
1914,  of  the  Arkansas  Conference,  organized  in  1836  under  the 
presidency  of  Bishop  Morris,  with  Rev.  W.  P.  Ratcliffe  as  Sec- 
retary, and  the  White  River  Conference,  which  the  General 
Conference  of  1870  formed  from  the  eastern  half  of  the  Arkan- 
sas Conference. 

The  first  session  of  the  White  River  Conference  was  held  at 
Mount  Zion,  a  country  church  in  Cross  County,  in  September, 
1870.  At  this  Conference  were  present  twenty-one  preachers, 
of  whom,  as  it  is  remembered,  John  H.  Dye  and  Henry  T.  Greg- 
ory alone  remain.  There  were  present  17  laymen.  Thomas  B. 
King  was  elected  Assistant  Secretary,  but  was  not  entered  as  a 
delegate.  The  second  session  had  25  members,  but  only  8  lay 
delegates  were  present.  At  the  fourth  session  13  pastors  and  8 
lay  delegates  were  reported  as  having  been  present.  In  1870 
the  reports  of  the  White  River  Conference  showed  32  traveling 
preachers,  90  local  preachers,  and  8,249  members.  In  1893  there 
were  83  preachers  in  full  connection,  81  local  preachers,  and 
29,113  members.  For  the  support  of  the  ministry  in  1870  the 
sum  of  |14,710  was  reported;  in  1913  f 70,697  was  reported. 
In  1870  James  Mackey,  of  Cotton  Plant,  baptized  seventy-two 
infants,  which  was  a  good  report  for  a  new  Conference.  A.  C. 
Griffin,  H.  C.  Gregory,  John  W.  Boswell,  J.  H.  Dye,  M.  M. 
29 


450 


History  of  Methodism. 


Smith,  J.  K.  Faris,  W.  C.  Davidson,  R.  C.  Morehead,  Josephus 
Anderson,  James  A.  Anderson,  S.  H.  Babcock,  Frank  Barrett, 
James  F.  Jernegan,  W.  L.  Oliver,  C.  Pope,  W.  B.  Ricks,  Fred 
Little,  Z.  T.  Bennett,  George  A.  Dannellj,  R.  G.  Brittain,  and 
many  others,  helped  to  make  the  membership  and  the  strength 
of  the  White  River  Conference.  This  Conference  was  noted  for 
its  cordial  brotherly  feelings  and  its  lack  of  Conference  cliques. 
The  laymen  have  furnished  Secretaries  for  it  as  follows :  J.  W. 
Wickersham,  three  year;  George  Thornburgh,  nine  years;  A. 
L.  Meloan,  three  years ;  F.  M.  Daniel,  seven  years — a  total  of 
twenty-two  years — and  the  preachers  for  a  like  period  of  time. 

In  1907  F.  M.  Daniel  was  elected  Conference  Lay  Leader  and 
lias  been  reelected  annually  ever  since.  On  the  union  of  the 
two  Conferences  he  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  North  Arkan- 
sas Conference,  as  also  to  be  its  Lay  Leader.  Prof.  J.  M.  Wil- 
liams, of  Galloway  College,  and  President  J.  H.  Reynolds,  of 
Hendrix  College,  with  President  J.  C.  Eaton,  of  Sloan-Hen- 
drix  Academy,  Prof.  A.  L.  Hutchins,  Prof.  G.  W.  Drake,  A.  L. 
Meloan,  J.  G.  Sudberry,  B.  B.  Hudgens,  Jonathan  Cole,  J.  R. 
Metcalf,  Prof.  P.  W.  Furry,  and  a  host  of  other  faithful  lay- 
men, are  amongst  the  leaders  in  the  new  Conference.  Hendrix 
College,  Galloway  College,  and  Sloan-Hendrix  Academy  are 
all  within  its  bounds  and  are  all  high-grade  institutions. 

At  Batesville,  in  1914,  the  union  of  the  Arkansas  and  the 
White  River  Conferences  was  completed  without  friction  or 
difficulty,  and  the  new  Conference  took  its  place  with  the  larger- 
bodies  of  Methodism  as  a  first-class  religious  power. 

Little  Rock  Conpeebnce. 

In  October,  1815,  the  Tennessee  Conference  organized  the 
first  Methodist  work  in  Arkansas,  the  Spring  River  Circuit  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  State,  and  included  it  in  the  Missouri 
District.  It  was  formed  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  and 
William  Stephenson,  from  Missouri,  was  appointed  pastor.  In 
1819,  1820,  1821,  and  1822  AVilliam  Stephenson  was  presiding 
elder  of  the  Arkansas  District.  Several  times  afterwards  he 
was  presiding  elder  of  this  district. 

In  1836  Arkansas  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  the  smic 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


451 


year  the  Geiieral  Conference  organized  the  Arkansas  Confer- 
ence, with  24  preachers,  2,7:,»:>  white  members,  599  colored  mem- 
bers, and  1,225  Indian  members.  The  Conference  embraced  a 
part  of  the  Indian  Territory  and  a  part  of  Louisiana.  At  the 
first  session  Andrew  Hunter  and  seven  others  were  admitted 
on  trial. 

The  General  Conference,  at  Columbus,  Ga.,  in  1854,  divided 
the  Arkansas  Conference  by  a  line  running  from  east  to  west 
across  the  State.  The  Conference  north  of  this  line  retained 
the  old  name,  while  that  south  was  called  the  Wachita  Confer- 
ence, taking  its  name  from  the  Wachita  River,  which  runs  from 
the  northwest  to  the  southeast  across  this  section  of  the  State. 
In  18G6  the  General  Conference  changed  the  name  to  Little 
Rock  Conference.  The  boundary  has  remained  unchanged  since 
the  formation  of  the  Conference.  Practically  the  southern 
half  of  the  State  is  embraced  in  this  Conference. 

At  the  time  of  the  division  there  were  in  the  whole  State  of 
Arkansas  8  districts,  75  pastoral  charges,  15,888  white  mem- 
bers, 2,897  colored  members,  233  local  preachers,  and  10  preach- 
ers holding  the  superannuate  or  supernumerary  relation — a  to- 
tal Methodist  population  of  19,018.  In  the  division  8,675  mem- 
bers fell  to  the  Wachita  Conference,  now  the  Little  Rock  Con- 
ference. The  first  meeting  of  the  new  Annual  Conference  was 
at  Washington,  Hempstead  County,  November  22-27,  1854.  A 
new  district  was  formed,  the  Monticello,  and  the  new  Conference 
began  its  career  with  five  districts.  There  were  only  four  sta- 
tions, and  the  circuits  embraced  from  twelve  to  twenty-eight 
appointments.  There  were  a  few  neat  frame  churches,  many 
log  churches,  and  a  great  many  congregations  met  in  school- 
houses,  in  private  homes,  and  under  brush  arbors.  The  country 
was  thinly  settled  by  poor  people.  There  were  no  railroads. 
Worship  was  simple.  There  were  but  few  hymn  books,  and  the 
preachers  "lined"  the  hymns.  The  organ  was  not  allowed  in 
the  church,  even  where  it  could  be  afforded.  As  late  as  1807 
the  Little  Rock  Conference  passed  resolutions  expressing  dis 
approval  "of  the  use  of  choirs  and  instruments  of  music  in  our 
churches,  believing  that  they  tend  to  formality  in  worship  and 
the  destruction  of  congregational  singing." 

Little  attention  was  given  to  Sunday  school  work.  There 


452 


History  of  Methodism. 


were  no  missionary  or  other  organizations  in  the  Church. 
Preaching,  singing,  prayer,  and  testimony  were  stressed.  It 
was  the  day  of  the  camp  meeting,  and  many  noted  camp  grounds 
were  to  be  found  over  the  country :  Benton,  in  Saline  County ; 
Glazier  Pool,  in  Garland ;  Rock  Springs,  in  Dallas ;  Columbia,  in 
Columbia;  Brown  Springs,  in  Clark;  Sardis,  in  Grant;  Mount 
rieasant,  in  Drew ;  Keener,  in  Ashley ;  Little  Prairie,  in  Arkan- 
sas; Center  Point,  in  Howard;  and  many  others.  The  annual 
meeting  and  revival  at  these  camp  grounds  was  the  great  event 
for  a  large  territory  around.  The  whole  population  came  to- 
gether and  camped  around  the  great  shed  beside  a  fine  spring 
and  remained  ten  days  or  two  weeks. 

The  roads  in  the  country  were  bad,  and  the  streams  were  not 
bridged;  so  it  was  necessary  that  the  preacher  have  a  good 
horse  that  could  make  long  trips  over  rough  roads,  swim  swol- 
len streams  without  getting  the  saddlebags  wet,  and  reach  the 
appointments  in  time  for  preaching.  White  people  and  negroes, 
masters  and  slaves,  were  members  of  the  same  congregation  and 
worshiped  together  at  the  same  time  and  place.  A  certain 
section  of  the  area  of  worship  was  set  apart  for  the  colored 
people,  and  all  the  privileges  of  the  congregation  were  theirs. 
The  preachers  of  the  Conference  were  white  men,  but  many 
negroes  were  licensed  and  ordained  as  local  preachers.  The 
Conference  sent  out  its  preachers  to  be  pastors  to  both  races. 
Usually  the  majority  of  the  members  were  white,  but  on  many 
of  the  pastoral  charges  the  majority  were  colored.  Some  of  the 
best  preachers  were  sent  to  African  missions. 

Before  the  War  between  the  States  the  Conference  enter- 
prised  some  schools  and  colleges.  In  1855  there  was  a  female 
seminary  at  Tulip.  There  was  also  a  male  school  at  the  same 
time  and  place.  The  war  permanently  closed  both  of  these.  In 
the  same  years  the  Conference  undertook  to  establish  female 
colleges  at  Camden,  Arkadelphia,  and  Hamburg.  The  only 
school  that  continued  throughout  the  war  was  Center  Point 
Male  and  Female  Academy,  under  the  presidency  of  Rev.  T.  W. 
Hayes,  who  still  lives. 

Of  course  the  Church  suffered  during  the  war.  Nearly  all 
of  its  educational  enterprises  were  suspended,  much  of  its 
property  was  destroyed,  and  the  Conference  decreased  from 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


453 


eighty-one  preachers  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  sixty  at  its 
close,  while  the  Church  membership  suffered  even  greater  de- 
pletion. 

Since  the  war  the  Little  Rock  Conference  has  developed  as 
rapidly  as  any  section  of  the  Church.  In  1916  the  membership 
was  49,385 ;  traveling  preachers,  exclusive  of  13  supplies,  167 ; 
local  preachers,  122;  church  buildings,  445;  value,  $1,130,230; 
parsonages,  129;  value,  $226,125;  contributed  for  all  Church 
purposes  the  past  year,  $302,282.  For  many  years  after  the 
war  the  Conference  did  not  establish  any  schools,  but  sever- 
al preachers  engaged  in  school  work  and  were  appointed  to 
their  schools  by  the  Conference.  J.  H.  Riggin  had  charge  of 
the  Selma  High  School  and -later  of  the  Warren  Academy.  T. 
W.  Hayes  changed  from  Center  Point  and  conducted  the  Min- 
eral Springs  Male  and  Female  Academy.  L.  M.  Lewis,  D.D., 
was  President  of  Arkansas  Female  College,  at  Little  Rock.  In 
1883  the  Arkansas  and  Little  Rock  Conferences  united  in  the 
purchase  of  Central  Collegiate  Institute,  at  Altus,  in  Franklin 
County.  In  1889  the  name  was  changed  to  Hendrix  College. 
In  1890  the  college  was  moved  to  Conway.  It  now  has  grounds, 
buildings,  and  endowment  to  the  amount  of  $400,000.  In  1888 
this  Conference  joined  with  the  other  Conferences  of  the  State 
in  establishing  Galloway  Female  College  in  Searcy.  In  1890 
the  Conference  established  Arkadelphia  Methodist  College  at 
Arkadelphia.  Later  its  name  was  changed  to  Henderson-Brown 
College.  In  1889  several  training  schools  were  established,  one 
at  Fordyce,  one  at  Stuttgart,  and  one  at  Mena ;  but  these  have 
been  suspended. 

Before  the  war  (1851)  the  Memphis  and  Arkansas  Christian 
Advocate,  published  at  Memphis,  was  circulated  sparsely  over 
this  Conference.  After  the  war  the  Western  Methodist,  pub- 
lished at  Memphis,  was  indorsed  and  taken  by  our  people.  In 
1882  the  Arkansas  Methodist  began  publication  at  Morrillton 
and  later  moved  to  Little  Rock.  Privately  owned  and  occasion- 
ally changing  its  name,  the  paper  has  been  issued  regularly 
since  1882.  In  1915  the  North  Arkansas  and  the  Little  Rock 
Conferences  bought  the  paper,  and  it  is  now  issued  as  the  Ar- 
kansas Methodist. 

The  Arkansas  Methodist  Orphanage  was  opened  in  1902  at 


454 


History  of  Methodism. 


Little  Rock.  In  1911  a  new  building  was  completed  at  a  cost 
of  $35,000.  The  institution  is  owned  and  supported  by  the  two 
Conferences. 

Prominent  among  the  preachers  who  formed  the  Conference 
in  1854  were:  Andrew  Hunter,  A.  R.  Winfield,  W.  P.  Ratcliff, 
William  Moores,  John  Pryor,  John  F.  Carr,  and  James  E. 
Cobb.  Those  of  commanding  influence  who  came  in  afterwards 
were :  E.  N.  Watson,  J.  R.  Harvey,  and  Horace  Jewell,  in  1859 ; 
C.  O.  Steel,  B.  G.  Johnson,  and  H.  D.  McKinnon,  in  1SG0;  T. 
W.  Hayes,  in  18G1 ;  J.  H.  Riggin,  in  18G5 ;  T.  H.  Ware,  in  18G8 ; 
C.  C.  Godden,  in  1872 ;  T.  D.  Scott,  in  1885 ;  Alonzo  Monk,  B.  A. 
Few,  Stonewall  Anderson,  Wr.  P.  Whaley,  Forney  Hutchinson, 
and  James  Thomas.  Many  others  have  honored  the  ministry 
in  this  Conference  and  made  this  territory  a  stronghold  of 
Methodism.  L.  B.  Leigh,  J.  H.  Hinemon,  George  Thornburgh, 
W.  H.  Ramsey,  W.  J.  Pinson,  J.  O.  A.  Bush,  and  R.  B.  F.  Key 
have  well  represented  the  lay  leadership. 

Oklahoma  Conferences. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  undivided 
Methodism,  held  in  New  York  City  in  May,  1844,  the  Indian 
Mission  Conference  was  authorized,  and  its  boundaries  were 
fixed  as  follows :  "The  Indian  Mission  Conference  shall  be 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Missouri  River,  on  the  east  by  the 
States  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  on  the  south  by  Red  River, 
and  on  the  west  by  the  Rocky  Mountains." 

On  October  23,  1844,  the  Methodist  preachers  of  the  Territory 
named  met,  at  the  call  of  Bishop  T.  A.  Morris,  who  presided, 
in  Riley's  Chapel,  Cherokee  Nation  (about  three  miles  from 
where  the  town  of  Tahlequah,  Okla.,  is  now  located),  in  the  In- 
dian Territory,  and  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  was  organ- 
ized with  eighteen  charter  members.  The  Church  membership 
at  organization  is  not  known ;  but  at  the  second  session  of  the 
Conference,  in  October,  1845,  it  was  reported  to  be  as  follows: 
Indians,  2,862;  whites,  115;  colored,  189;  local  preachers,  36. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  Conference,  at  Riley's  Chapel,  a 
vote  was  taken,  and  by  a  majority  of  one  the  Conference  be- 
came a  part  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  instead 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


455 


Many  schools  were  from  time  to  time  established  among  the 
Indians;  and  at  the  ninth  session  of  the  Conference,  in  1852, 
eight  such  schools,  with  389  pupils,  were  reported. 

There  were  no  sessions  of  the  Conference  in  18G2  or  1863. 
Sessions  were  held  the  next  two  years ;  but  few  attended,  and 
by  the  close  of  the  war  the  work  of  the  Conference  had  reached 
a  low  stage.  The  country  had  been  laid  waste,  and  the  tribes 
were  torn  with  internal  strife.  The  Church  was  impoverished 
to  the  last  degree  and  could  not  aid ;  but  God  did  not  forsake. 
The  few  left  on  the  ground  were  faithful,  while  immigration 
into  the  Territory  continued,  and  helpers  were  raised  up  with- 
in the  bounds  of  the  Church  until  in  1875  there  were  5  dis- 
tricts, 34  charges,  85  local  preachers,  4,753  members,  33  Sunday 
schools  with  943  pupils,  24  church  buildings,  and  a  number  of 
literary  schools.  In  1885  there  were  5  districts,  56  charges, 
112  local  preachers,  7,307  members,  and  84  Sunday  schools 
with  3,129  pupils.  There  was  raised  that  year  $118  for  Confer- 
ence claimants  and  $1,140  for  missions. 

On  April  22,  1889,  the  western  half  of  the  Indian  Territory 
was  opened  to  settlement  for  the  white  people  and  called  Okla- 
homa Territory.  Statehood  came  on  November  16,  1907,  unit- 
ing both  Territories  in  the  new  State  of  Oklahoma,  with  a  pro- 
hibition proviso  written  in  the  constitution.  The  Conference 
was  in  session  on  that  date,  and  the  name  was  changed  to  the 
Oklahoma  Conference. 

In  November,  1910,  the  Conference  met  at  Ardmore,  Okla., 
at  which  date  it  was  divided  into  the  East  Oklahoma  Confer- 
ence and  the  West  Oklahoma  Conference,  there  being  at  that 
time  a  total  membership  in  the  State  of  52,421,  371  local  preach- 
ers, 412  church  buildings,  valued  at  $1,146,253,  and  221  par- 
sonages, valued  at  $262,496,  with  a  total  raised  for  all  purposes 
that  year  of  $500,729  and  an  increase  in  membership  of  2,816. 
There  is  at  present  a  total  membership  in  the  two  Conferences 
of  57,591. 

Such  men  as  T.  F.  Brewer,  who  without  a  break  was  sent  as 
a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  for  twenty-eight  years, 
M.  A.  Clarke,  T.  F.  Roberts,  H.  J.  Brown,  J.  J.  Methvin,  J.  M. 
Gross,  M.  L.  Butler,  J.  A.  Rowan,  N.  L.  Linebaugh,  O.  E.  God- 
dard,  W.  F.  Dunkle,  S.  H.  Babcock,  W.  M.  Wilson,  R.  E.  L. 


456 


History  of  Method  ism. 


Morgan,  W.  A  Shelton,  J.  K.  Florence,  and  J.  F.  Thompson 
have  been  prominent  in  Oklahoma  Methodism.  The  work  of 
these  leaders  has  been  reenforced  by  the  help  of  such  able  lay- 
men as  D.  H.  Linebaugh,  T.  8.  De  Armon,  A.  E.  Bonnell, 
B.  C.  Clark,  and  others.* 

Denver  Conference. 

In  the  year  1870  Rev.  A.  H.  Quillian  went  to  Colorado,  go- 
ing with  Green  Russell,  the  man  who  first  discovered  gold  in 
the  State.  He  went  at  the  solicitation  of  Mr.  Russell  and 
traveled  by  ox  wagon.  In  the  spring  of  1871  he  was  asked  to 
preach  and  preached  his  first  sermon  in  an  adobe  dwelling  house 
at  a  place  now  known  as  Line,  near  Pueblo.  At  some  time 
during  the  summer  or  early  fall  of  1871  Dr.  Morrison,  having 
been  asked  by  one  of  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  as  he  passed  through  St.  Louis  on  his  way  to 
Denver  to  look  up  A.  H.  Quillian,  he  and  his  wife  visited  Mr. 
Quillian  and  his  family  at  the  place  where  they  lived  on  a  lit- 
tle farm  near  St.  Charles  Creek.  Together  they  at  that  time 
agreed  upon  the  work  that  afterwards  became  the  Denver  Con 
ference,  Dr.  Morrison  being  the  first  presiding  elder  and  A. 
H.  Quillian  the  preacher  in  charge.  In  1872  Mr.  Quillian 
preached  in  Pueblo  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Charles  Goodnight. 
Mr.  Goodnight  now  lives  at  Goodnight,  Tex.  In  1872  John 
Sage  was  converted  at  what  is  now  known  as  Beulah,  then 
called  Meas's  Hole.  He  furnished  Mr.  Quillian  with  a  horse 
to  ride  and  also  gave  him  ten  acres  of  land  to  cultivate,  which 
enabled  him  to  travel  and  preach.  Quillian  preached  at  Flor- 
ence and  Hard  Scrabble,  also  on  Four-Mile  Creek,  at  present 
known  as  Cripple  Creek,  from  which  the  famous  gold  camp 
takes  its  name.  In  1873  he  organized  a  class  at  Rye,  with  ;i 
Mr.  Hunter  as  one  of  the  charter  members.  In  1873  T.  R. 
Pierce  arrived  in  Colorado  and  took  charge  of  the  Church  ;it 
Pueblo.  Pierce  was  a  nephew  of  Bishop  Pierce.  In  1874  Quil- 
lian organized  a  class  at  Gardner,  Colo.,  Mrs.  J.  B.  Hudson 
being  a  charter  member.    Mis.  Hudson  had  a  habit  of  getting 


♦The  author  regrets  that  at  the  last  moment  expected  matter  for  sep- 
arate sketches  of  the  two  Oklahoma  Conferences  failed  to  come  to  hand. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


157 


happy  and  shouting  when  she  went  to  church.  In  1874  Rev. 
Dr.  Smith  came  to  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  He  was  presiding  elder  of  the 
Pueblo  District  and  organized  a  class  at  Honey,  Colo.,  then 
known  as  the  Sunflower  Valley.  In  1875  Quillian  organized 
a  class  at  La  Veta,  with  E.  A.  Strange,  Virgil  Barnard,  and 
Bascom  Sage  among  the  charter  members.  In  1876  he  organ- 
ized a  class  at  Walsenburg,  with  R.  A.  Quillian  as  a  charter 
member.  About  this  time  Rev.  Dr.  S.  W.  Busk  organized  a 
class  at  Trinidad.  During  this  interval  many  good  men  served 
in  the  Denver  Conference,  a  large  number  for  so  small  a  Con- 
ference— Rev.  Dr.  Neeley,  J.  H.  Ledbetter,  W.  J.  Jackson,  Dr. 
W.  L.  Rader,  and  others.  In  1884  Rev.  Mr.  Kearns  organized 
a  class  at  Saguache. 

In  the  latter  seventies  and  early  eighties  the  San  Juan 
Basin  was  opened  up  and  settled  largely  from  such  places  as 
Gardner,  Rye,  La  Veta.  Stockmen  moved  their  herds  there — 
from  Rye,  the  Robinsons;  from  Gardner,  the  Hudsons;  from 
La  Veta,  the  Sages.  With  some  of  these  families  as  a  nucleus 
was  formed  the  Durango  District,  with  Churches  at  Durango, 
Farmington,  Aztec,  N.  Mex.,  Mancos,  Colo.,  as  well  as  at 
other  places.  This  district  has  been  served  by  some  very 
strong  men,  among  them  Rev.  Mr.  Howard,  who  went  to  the 
West  Texas  Conference,  and  of  later  years  Rev.  Mr.  Bundy, 
Dr.  Waldraven,  John  Cox,  and  many  such  worthy  men. 

In  Denver  City  the  work  of  the  Conference  has  been  distin- 
guished in  recent  years  by  the  erection  of  a  handsome  new 
church  by  the  St.  Paul's  congregation  and  by  other  tokens 
of  revival  in  Methodist  spirit. 

Amongst  the  delegates  who  have  gone  to  the  General  Con 
ference  from  the  Denver  Conference  are  the  following:  Clerical 
—A.  H.  Quillian,  in  1882  ;  J.  H.  Ledbetter,  in  1898;  W.  H. 
Howard,  in  1902 ;  T.  S.  Wheeler,  in  1906 ;  R.  E.  Dickenson,  in 
1914.  Laymen— J.  R.  Killian,  E.  A.  Strange,  R.  E.  Rice,  E.  S. 
Whitehead. 

New  Mexico  Conference. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  preachers  of  the  Denver  Confer- 
ence had  been  working  in  the  northern  and  western  parts  of  the 


458 


History  of  Methodism. 


Territory  of  New  Mexico,  and  the  district  known  as  the  New 
Mexico  District  reached  as  far  south  as  Deming.  The  preach- 
ers of  the  West  Texas  Conference  had  been  pushing  west  and 
had  reached  as  far  as  El  Paso  and  Las  Cruces.  Pioneering 
work  had  also  been  done  in  the  Sacramento  and  White  Moun- 
tains and  along  the  Pecos  Valley;  so  that  when  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  met  in 
Centenary  Church,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  in  May,  1800,  it  was  deemed 
advisable  that  the  New  Mexico  Conference  should  be  formed 
out  of  x>art  of  the  territory  of  New  Mexico  and  that  part  of  the 
West  Texas  Conference  lying  west  of  the  Pecos  River. 

The  new  Conference  held  its  first  annual  session  at  El  Paso, 
Tex.,  August  27,  1800,  the  presiding  officer  being  Bishop  O.  P. 
Fitzgerald.  The  Conference  roll  shows  sixteen  preachers,  with 
twenty-six  appointments,  a  few  being  supplied  by  local  brethren, 
and  a  number  left  to  be  supplied. 

The  Conference  was  divided  into  three  districts — viz. :  Al- 
buquerque, with  J.  D.  Bush  presiding  elder;  Eddy,  with  I.  N. 
Crutchfield  presiding  elder;  and  El  Paso,  with  J.  M.  Steven- 
son presiding  elder.  All  of  these  brethren  had  proved  their 
worth  as  pioneers  in  the  vast  territory  now  forming  the  New 
Mexico  Annual  Conference,  which  comprised  wide  stretches 
of  plains  over  which  ranged  thousands  of  cattle,  arid  deserts 
(sometimes  with  significant  names,  such  as  Cactus  Flat  and 
Jornado  Del  Mortej,  numerous  ranges  of  mountains  contain- 
ing immense  mineral  wealth,  but  with  few  and  widely  scattered 
towns  and  settlements,  the  population  being  mostly  frontiers- 
men, cattlemen,  and  hardy  miners  and  prospectors.  The  church 
buildings  were  either  frame  or  adobe  structures,  except  three 
that  were  built  of  brick. 

Many  of  the  litile  towns  were  of  mushroom  growth  and  soon 
fell  into  partial  decay,  and  several  of  the  charges  had  to  be 
abandoned  in  consequence;  so  that  at  the  Conference  of  1894 
the  number  had  been  reduced  to  fifteen,  with  twelve  preachers 
as  members  of  the  Conference.  The  work  was  arduous  and 
called  for  sacrifices  and  heroism  on  the  part  of  the  preachers; 
but  they  invariably  faced  their  tasks  with  cheerfulness  and 
courage,  and  before  long  their  faithfulness  was  rewarded,  for 
as  the  territory  became  known  for  its  great  opportunities  a  tide 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


459 


of  immigration  set  in,  and  the  work  developed  so  fast  that  it 
seemed  impossible  for  the  young  Conference  to  keep  up  with 
the  demands.  At  the  end  of  the  second  decade  (1910)  the  mem- 
bership had  increased  to  5,980,  the  preachers  to  forty-two,  and 
the  appointments  to  fifty-one.  New  and  handsome  buildings 
had  replaced  many  of  the  frame  and  adobe  structures,  and  the 
value  of  the  property  was  given  as  $268,425.  The  last  Annual 
Conference  (1915)  showed  a  still  greater  increase  in  member- 
ship, it  having  then  reached  to  8,164,  with  fifty-six  churches  at 
a  property  valuation  of  $382,460. 

The  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society  during  this  time  had 
achieved  great  things  for  the  young  Conference.  Without  its 
aid  there  would  have  been  but  little  advance.  The  members 
heroically  devoted  themselves  to  building  parsonages,  assisted 
in  raising  the  salaries  of  the  preachers,  provided  for  their 
needs,  and  promoted  the  interests  of  the  work  of  God  in  every 
way  possible. 

Of  the  preachers  who  served  the  Conference,  J.  D.  Bush  was 
one  of  the  most  persistent  of  church  builders  in  the  early  days. 
He  also  was  a  most  eloquent  preacher.  C.  C.  Edington  for  four 
years  traveled  over  his  vast  district  in  labors  "most  abundant'' 
and  did  much  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Conference.  J.  B. 
Cochran,  for  seven  years  as  presiding  elder  of  the  El  Paso  and 
Pecos  Valley  Districts,  labored  well  in  providing  new  edifices 
and  in  replacing  the  old  buildings  with  new  and  better  struc- 
tures adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  growing  Churches. 

The  educational  policy  of  the  Conference  was  not  as  success- 
ful as  had  been  desired.  One  or  more  institutions  that  were 
projected  had  to  be  abandoned  for  lack  of  sufficient  financial 
support.  In  all  other  lines  of  work,  both  local  and  eonnec 
tional,  the  New  Mexico  Conference  has  fully  justified  its  es- 
tablishment. 

Los  Angeles  Conference. 
As  early  as  1863  Rev.  J.  C.  Stewart,  of  the  Pacific  Confer- 
ence, preached  in  a  number  of  places  in  Southern  California, 
including  San  Bernardino.  He  was  subsequently  murdered  by 
his  traveling  companion  while  on  a  journey  into  New  Mexico. 
The  first  church  in  San  Bernardino  was  built  in  1866-67.  In  the 
autumn  of  1868  Bishop  Marvin,  presiding  over  the  Pacific  Con- 


4(H) 


History  of  Methodism. 


ference,  made  appointments  to  the  Los  Angeles  District  as  fol- 
lows: William  A.  Spurlock,  presiding  elder;  Los  Angeles,  S. 
M.  Adams;  San  Bernardino,  M.  W.  Glover;  Santa  Barbara,  D. 
M.  Rice;  Santa  Clara,  J.  A.  Miller.  In  September  of  the  same 
year  John  W.  Allen,  a  licensed  exhorter,  reached  Los  Angeles 
from  Texas  and  was  present  at  the  first  Quarterly  Conference 
held  in  Southern  California.  Early  in  the  next  year,  having 
assisted  the  presiding  elder  in  revival  meetings,  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  and  appointed  to  be  the  assistant  of  M.  W.  Glover 
at  San  Bernardino.  At  the  end  of  this  year  he  was  admitted 
into  the  Pacific  Conference  as  an  itinerant.  During  the  next 
year  there  were  reported  four  hundred  conversions  on  the  dis- 
trict. The  presiding  elder,  W.  A.  Spurlock,  was  a  consecrated 
man,  a  good  singer,  and  had  fine  qualifications  as  an  evangel- 
ist. 

The  Los  Angeles  Conference  was  organized  at  San  Ber- 
nardino, Cal.,  October  26,  1870,  Bishop  William  M.  Wightman 
presiding.  During  this  year  Alexander  Groves,  a  man  good 
and  true,  secured  property  for  the  Church  both  in  Phoenix  and. 
Prescott,  Ariz. 

The  second  session  of  the  Conference  was  held  in  1S71  by 
Bishop  Keener,  at  Los  Nietos.  The  missionary  anniversary, 
held  at  this  session  of  the  Conference,  resulted  in  a  collection 
of  $628,  the  banner  collection  for  the  year  in  the  West.  At  a 
camp  meeting  held  at  Los  Xietos  in  that  year  one  hundred 
conversions  were  reported.  The  statistics  of  the  Conference 
for  the  year  showed  a  membership  of  555.  Bishop  Keener  re- 
ported the  purchase  of  a  lot  in  San  Diego  at  a  cost  of  $1,200, 
also  one  in  Los  Angeles  at  a  cost  of  $1,000.  A  church  had  been 
built  in  Prescott,  the  value  of  which  was  given  at  $1,550. 
About  this  time  two  Conference  schools  were  in  existence,  one 
known  as  the  Los  Xietos  Collegiate  Institute,  George  E.  But- 
ler, Principal,  and  the  other  as  the  Wilson  College,  of  Wil- 
mington. John  W.  Allen  was  the  first  undergraduate  to  com- 
plete the  four  years'  course  in  the  Conference.  He  is  the 
only  living  minister  who  was  present  at  the  organization  of 
the  Los  Angeles  Conference.  He  is  now  a  superannuate,  but 
gives  all  his  strength  and  time  to  a  work  which  he  loves  so 
well.   He  is  honored  as  the  patriarch  of  the  Conference. 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


4G1 


There  are  at  present  in  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  about 
40  appointments,  with  40  church  buildings,  27  parsonages,  and 
a  membership  of  5,287;  28  Epworth  Leagues  and  41  Sunday 
schools.  Not  a  few  preachers  who  have  from  time  to  time  been 
announced  as  transfers  to  this  Conference  have  failed  to  reach 
the  field;  others  who  have  gone  have  stayed  but  a  short  time, 
yet  the  work  has  been  constantly  manned,  and  faithful  workers 
have  been  found  to  cultivate  the  field.  The  old  guard  has  al- 
ways given  great  honor  to  William  A.  S'purlock  as  the  founder 
of  the  Conference  and  to  Groves  and  Hedgpeth  the  honor  of 
founding  the  work  in  Arizona. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1870  that  Rev.  Alexander  Groves  went 
from  California  to  Arizona.  He  had  gone  from  Texas  to  Cali- 
fornia and  had  done  much  pioneer  work  in  his  youth  in  the  then 
dangerous  frontier  of  that  great  commonwealth.  He  was  sent 
out  by  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  and  went  directly  to  Salt 
River  Valley.  At  that  time  the  city  of  Phoenix  was  a  few  scat- 
tered adobe  huts.  In  the  spring  of  1871  he  organized  a  socie- 
ty of  the  Church,  South.  This  was  under  a  brush  arbor  in 
what  was  then  known  as  the  "Mesquite  Neighborhood/'  lo- 
cated about  one  mile  and  a  half  southwest  of  where  the  State 
Capitol  now  stands.  This  was  the  first  Methodist  class  and  the 
first  Protestant  organization  in  the  State. 

The  charter  members  of  this  real  "first  Church"  were  seven 
godly  women.  Only  two  of  them  are  now  living,  but  their 
children,  grandchildren,  and  great-grandchildren  have  become 
empire  builders  in  this  great  Southwest. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1871  Mr.  Groves  rode  horseback  over 
the  dangerous  old  "Black  Canyon  Trail"  to  Prescott,  and  in 
the  home  of  T.  H.  Head,  on  "Goose  Flat,"  organized  a  Church 
with  ten  charter  members.  Through  the  liberality  of  friends 
in  Texas  and  California,  added  to  the  contributions  of  this  lit- 
tle band,  he  built  a  small  frame  church  on  the  property  where 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  now  stands.  This  was  the 
first  Protestant  and  the  first  Methodist  church  building  in  the 
State.  This  building  has  since  been  claimed  as  the  first  church 
built  by  another  denomination,  but  the  papers  are  in  possession 
of  those  who  know  the  facts. 

About  this  time  a  Mrs.  Brooks,  wife  of  Judge  Brooks,  of  the 


402 


History  of  Methodism. 


first  Supreme  Bench  of  the  Territory,  received  au  offer  from  a 
lady  in  Philadelphia  to  give  two  solid  silver  communion  sets 
to  the  first  two  Protestant  Churches  organized  in  the  Territory. 
Both  of  these  were  presented  to  Mr.  Groves  for  the  classes  a1 
Phoenix  and  Prescott.  Not  wishing  to  appear  selfish,  however, 
he  accepted  only  one,  the  other  being  given  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Phoenix.  The  communion  set  accepted  by 
Mr.  Groves  is  still  in  possession  of  the  Central  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  at  Phoenix. 

In  the  fall  of  1871  Alexander  Groves  returned  to  California 
to  attend  the  session  of  his  Annual  Conference.  While  absent, 
through  the  carelessness  of  others  the  Church  property  at  Pres- 
cott came  into  the  possession  of  another  denomination. 

After  Conference  Mr.  Groves  returned  as  presiding  elder  and 
preached  in  all  the  then  more  prominent  settlements  of  the  Ter- 
ritory. Half  his  work  has  never  become  known  to  the  Church, 
even  in  the  State.  At  one  time  his  life  was  endangered  by 
fanatical  Mormons  in  the  White  Mountains  of  the  State,  and 
he  escaped  only  through  the  kindly  intervention  and  help  of  a 
big-hearted  cowboy. 

In  the  winter  of  1871  Rev.  Simeon  Shaw  came  from  Texas 
to  take  charge  of  the  work  at  Phoenix,  but  remained  only  to 
the  end  of  that  Conference  year. 

The  property  in  Prescott  was  not  regained,  but  the  class 
was  never  disbanded,  although  without  a  pastor  until  1870, 
when  Rev.  L.  J.  Hedgpeth,  who  had  come  from  California  in 
1875,  assisted  by  Mr.  Groves,  held  a  revival  meeting  and  re- 
organized the  work  with  a  class  of  eighteen.  Rev.  E.  B.  Wiley,  a 
former  local  preacher  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  work  and  in  1878  finished  a  church  build- 
ing on  West  Gurley  Street,  which  is  still  standing  and  is  the 
oldest  Protestant  church  building  in  the  State.  With  a  small 
addition,  built  for  the  Sunday  school,  and  a  few  repairs,  it  is 
still  in  fair  condition  and  is  used  at  present  by  our  congre- 
gation. 

The  Conference  of  1876  appointed  Rev.  Lewis  J.  Hedgpeth  as 
presiding  elder,  Rev.  E.  B.  Wiley  supplied  Phoenix,  and  Rev. 
Lewis  Featherstun  was  appointed  pastor  at  Prescott.  Rev. 
William  Monk,  of  West  Texas  fame,  was  asked  to  open  work 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


463 


in  Tucson ;  and  Groves,  the  pathfinder,  craved  the  privilege  of 
blazing  the  trail  in  the  Verde  Valley  and  the  wilds  of  the 
Mogollon  Mountains.  During  the  year  Monk  decided  that 
the  work  at  Tucson  was  not  worth  while  and  went  to  help 
Groves,  who  had  opened  up  unmeasured  distances  in  the  great 
wilds  of  mountainous  Northern  Arizona  and  needed  help  to 
hold  what  he  had  gained.  Featherstun's  feeble  health  pre- 
vented his  going  to  his  appointment  at  all,  and  Rev.  A.  M. 
Campbell  was  sent  from  California  to  take  his  place,  he  too 
remaining  only  one  year.  During  the  same  year  (1876-77) 
Rev.  E.  B.  Wiley  completed  the  walls  of  the  old  adobe  church 
at  Phcenix,  on  the  corner  of  Center  and  Monroe  Streets,  where 
our  more  modern  plant  now  stands. 

In  the  fall  of  1876  Rev.  L.  J.  Hedgpeth  rode  horseback 
over  the  old  Ehrnburg  Trail  from  Phoenix,  Ariz.,  to  Santa  Ana, 
Cal.,  to  attend  the  session  of  the  Los  Angeles  Conference,  at 
which  he  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the  Arizona  Dis- 
trict. On  that  trip  he  encountered  perils,  privations,  hard- 
ships, and  exposures  which  brought  on  a  serious  fever.  Soon 
after  his  return  to  Arizona  he  lay  for  three  months  at  the  very 
entrance  to  the  shadowy  gates.  In  his  old  age  the  family 
physicians  thought  that  perhaps  he  never  fully  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  that  exposure  and  its  resultant  breakdown,  al- 
though he  lived  nearly  forty  years  longer.  He  was  a  true  hero. 
Through  loneliness,  weariness,  and  discouragement  he  rode, 
braver  than  any  plumed  knight,  to  preach  the  gospel  and  lay 
the  foundations  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  was  during  this 
time  that  our  property  at  Phoenix  fell  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  were  not  the  friends  of  our  cause  and  came  near  being 
lost.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  sterling  courage  of  a  brave,  hardy 
old  Scotch-Irishman,  Malady  Monroe  Jackson,  we  would  have 
lost  our  very  valuable  holdings. 

In  1882  Rev.  J.  W.  Allen  was  presiding  elder  of  the  Los 
Angeles  District  and  went  to  Phoenix  to  look  after  the  work 
there.  He  made  arrangements  for  the  settlement  of  the  claims 
against  the  Church  property  and  sent  as  regular  pastor  Rev. 
J.  W.  McCann.  Since  that  time  the  Church  has  sent  out  reg- 
ular pastors  and  elders  for  the  work. 

Amongst  those  who  have  helped  to  make  the  history  of  this 


464 


History  of  Methodism. 


Conference  may  be  named :  T.  R.  Curtis,  W.  B.  Stradley,  R. 
H.  Parker,  J.  F.  G.  Finley,  J.  W.  Chapman,  W.  B.  Sharbrough, 
H.  C.  Christian,  and  R.  P.  Howell. 

Pacific  Conference. 

The  Pacific  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  was  organized  in  Wesley  Chapel,  on  Powell 
Street,  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  April  15,  1852.  In  the  absence  of 
a  bishop,  Rev.  Jesse  Boring,  D.D.,  was  elected  President,  while 
A.  M.  Wynn  was  chosen  Secretary.  The  original  members 
were :  Jesse  Boring,  D.  W.  Pollock,  W.  R.  Gober,  A.  M.  Wynn, 
J.  S.  Malone,  J.  F.  Blythe,  A.  M.  Bailey,  J.  M.  Fulton,  Morris 
Evans,  W.  A.  Simmons,  J.  C.  Simmons,  D.  B.  Leyne,  E.  B. 
Lockley,  S.  W.  Davies,  J.  W.  Kelley,  A.  Graham,  J.  M.  Jones, 
and  John  Mathews.  The  last  three  named  were  not  on  the 
field  at  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  Conference,  but  re- 
ceived appointments,  and  soon  afterwards  Graham  and  Marl) 
ews  took  up  the  work.  Jones  never  reported.  Cyprian  Grid- 
lev,  who  had  been  at  work  in  California,  was  present  at  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Conference,  but,  at  his  own  request,  was  left 
without  an  appointment.  Judge  D.  O.  Shattuck,  a  layman, 
was  present  at  this  first  Conference.  He  later  entered  the  min- 
istry and  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  Pacific  Conference. 

Prior  to  the  organization  of  the  Conference  Bishop  Paine 
sent  out  Dr.  Jesse  Boring  as  Superintendent  of  the  Pacific 
Mission,  together  with  D.  W.  Pollock  and  A.  M.  Wynn.  These 
brethren  arrived  in  California  and  began  work  in  April,  1850. 
The  first  preaching  places  and  organizations  were  San  Fran- 
cisco, Stockton,  San  Jose,  Sonora,  and  Sacramento.  Cyprian 
Gridley,  formerly  a  member  of  the  Louisville  Conference,  was 
by  Dr.  Boring  appointed  to  the  work  during  the  year,  and  in  the 
fall  of  1851  J.  S.  Malone  and  W.  R.  Gober  entered  the  field. 

Educational  interests  received  early  attention,  and  at  this 
first  session  of  the  Conference  plans  were  laid  for  establishing 
a  college  and  four  high  schools.  Pacific  Methodist  College  was 
founded  at  Vacaville  in  1860,  with  Dr.  W.  T.  Lucky  as  Presi- 
dent and  C.  S.  Smith  and  S.  B.  Morse  as  assistants.  The  col- 
lege was  later  moved  to  Santa  Rosa,  where  for  many  years  it 
flourished  as  one  of  the  leading  educational  institutions  in  the 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


465 


State.  It  has  been  closed  for  a  number  of  years.  There  were 
for  a  time  schools  at  Visalia,  San  Jose,  and  Gilroy. 

A  Church  paper,  known  as  the  Christian  Observer,  was 
launched  on  January  5,  1852,  some  months  before  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Conference.  The  paper  has  at  times,  under  financial 
stress,  been  compelled  to  suspend  publication.  It  has  been 
called  Pacific  Methodist,  Christian  Spectator,  and  is  now  the 
Pacific  Methodist  Advocate.  W.  E.  Vaughan  has  been  the  ed- 
itor continuously  for  the  past  fourteen  years. 

The  Pacific  Conference  Church  Extension  Society  was  or- 
ganized in  1869. 

Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  pioneer  of  the  Conference 
was  O.  P.  Fitzgerald.  He  went  to  California  in  1855,  in  the  sec- 
ond year  of  his  ministry,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Conference 
till  1878,  when  he  was  elected  editor  of  the  Nashville  Christian 
Advocate.  Besides  his  work  in  California  as  pastor,  editor, 
and  college  agent,  he  was  for  four  years  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  during  which  time  the  State  University 
and  the  California  Normal  School  were  founded. 

Orcenith  Fisher  went  to  the  Pacific  Conference  in  1855  and 
had  a  large  part  in  the  building  of  Methodism  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  particularly  in  pioneering  the  work  in  Oregon. 

Some  of  the  worthy  leaders  of  the  work  in  California  in  the 
earlier  days,  in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned,  were:  R. 
W.  Bigham,  W.  J.  Mahon,  A.  Odom,  C.  Y.  Rankin,  C.  B.  Rid- 
dick,  Sam  Brown,  T.  H.  B.  Anderson,  J.  C.  Pendergrast,  E.  E. 
Hoss,  G.  B.  Winton,  S.  M.  Godbey,  H.  C.  Christian,  A.  P.  Few, 
John  Hannon,  R.  P.  Wilson,  A.  C.  Bane,  H.  C.  Meredith,  and 
Joseph  Emery.  Prominent  in  the  work  of  the  Conference  at 
the  present  time  are :  J.  A.  Batchelor,  J.  J.  N.  Kenney,  J.  A.  B. 
Fry,  Mark  Hodgson,  J.  E.  Moore,  W.  E.  Vaughan,  H.  V.  Moore, 
J.  A.  Wailes,  L.  S.  Jones,  W.  R.  Thornton,  Harold  Govette,  and 
E.  H.  Mowre. 

The  Columbia,  the  East  Columbia,  and  the  Los  Angeles  Con- 
ferences were  organized  out  of  territory  formerly  embraced  in 
the  original  Pacific  Conference.  This  fact  must  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  comparing  statistics.  At  the  first  session  of 
the  Conference  there  were  reported :  20  circuits  and  stations, 
294  members,  7  local  preachers,  7  Sunday  schools,  192  scholars, 
30 


History  of  Methodism, 


$731  collected  for  missions,  10  churches,  6  parsonages,  2  schools 
in  operation  and  2  waiting  for  teachers.  In  1915  the  follow- 
ing statistics  were  reported:  Societies,  95;  members,  8,000; 
local  preachers,  12;  houses  of  worship,  85;  value  of  houses  oi 
worship,  S750,000;  parsonages,  07,  valued  at  £135,000;  125  in- 
fants baptized;  177  adults  baptized;  00  Epworth  Leagues,  with 
nearly  2,000  members ;  90  Sunday  schools,  with  9,000  scholars ; 
contributed  for  Conference  claimants,  §1,800;  missions.  s5.- 
000;  Church  extension,  §1,200;  education,  §050;  Bible  Society, 
§100;  support  of  the  ministry,  §51,000;  and  for  all  purposes, 
over  §100,000. 

The  Pacific  Conference  at  the  present  time  embraces  all  of 
Northern  and  Central  California,  the  southernmost  charge  be 
ing  Bakersfield.  During  its  sixty-five  sessions  the  Conference 
has  had  ten  Secretaries.  E.  K.  Miller  held  this  position  for 
thirteen  years;  L.  C.  Renfro,  for  twenty- two  years;  and  Wil- 
liam Acton,  for  twelve  years. 

Northwestern  Conferences. 

Montana. 

In  the  body  of  this  history  will  be  found  an  account  of  the 
pioneer  work  done  in  the  State  of  Montana  by  that  remarkable 
man,  L.  B.  Stateler.  From  the  sowing  by  him  of  the  seeds  of 
the  gospel  Southern  Methodism  came  to  have  a  cause  in  that 
splendid  young  commonwealth.  The  General  Conference  of 
1878  ordered  the  erection  of  an  Annual  Conference  in  its  ter- 
ritory; and  accordingly,  on  September  19,  1878,  the  preachers 
who  were  on  the  ground  gathered  at  Helena  and,  under  the 
presidency  of  Bishop  Wightman,  carried  out  the  direction  of  the 
General  Conference.  Two  districts  were  formed — the  Helena 
District,  with  R.  S.  Clark  as  presiding  elder,  and  Deer  Lodge 
District,  with  E.  J.  Stanley  as  presiding  elder,  both  veterans 
of  former  fields.  With  them  was  the  redoubtable  Stateler,  the 
father  of  the  mission.  The  number  of  members  reported  at 
this  time  was  two  hundred  and  twenty,  including  two  local 
preachers.  The  number  of  Sunday  schools  Gras  four,  with  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  scholars  and  twenty-two  officers  and  teach- 
ers. This  was  the  beginning  of  things  in  a  new  and  sparsely 
settled  State.    The  progress  of  the  Conference  since  organiza- 


Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences. 


467 


tion  has  been  necessarily  slow.  In  1015  the  minutes  showed 
twenty  appointments,  including  two  districts.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  fifteen  hundred  members,  an  increase  of  one  hundred 
and  forty  for  the  year,  were  reported.  There  were  fifteen  Sun- 
day schools  and  seven  Epworth  Leagues,  with  a  combined  mem- 
bership of  1,568.  Church  property  was  reported  to  be  valued 
at  |120,200.  The  pioneers,  L.  P>.  Stateler  and  R.  S.  Clark,  have 
entered  into  the  rest  of  the  fathers,  and  E.  J.  Stanley  is  an 
honored  superannuate.  Other  names  which  have  been  especially 
prominent  in  the  history  of  the  Conference  are  D.  B.  Price  and 
P.  I).  Hartman.   Dr.  David  Morton  once  labored  in  this  field. 

Columbia  Conference. 

The  memorable  General  Conference  of  1866  authorized  the 
erection  of  the  first  Conference  in  the  great  Northwest  in  these 
words :  "That  the  Oregon,  Jacksonville,  and  Idaho  Districts  be 
cut  off  from  the  Pacific  Conference  and  erected  into  a  new  Con- 
ference to  be  known  as  the  Columbia  Conference."  On  Oc- 
tober 26,  1866,  under  the  presidency  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh, 
the  contingents  of  these  districts  met  at  Corvallis,  Oregon, 
the  center  of  the  Church's  early  educational  interest  in  that 
region,  and  completed  the  organization.  Among  the  well- 
known  pioneer  itinerants  in  this  company  were :  L.  B.  Stateler 
(afterwards  identified  with  the  Montana  Conference),  D.  C.  Mc 
Farland,  James  Kelsay,  and  W.  A.  Finley  (at  that  time  Presi- 
dent of  Corvallis  College).  The  Conference  had  thirteen  ap- 
pointments, including  the  presidency  of  the  college.  The  mem- 
bership was  five  hundred  and  twelve,  local  preachers  included. 
At  the  division  of  the  Conference  into  Columbia  and  .East  Co- 
lumbia, which  occurred  in  1890,  there  were  three  districts,  with 
thirty-eight  appointments  and  a  total  membership  of  1,902. 
M.  V.  Howard,  J.  W.  Compton,  E.  G.  Michael,  J.  W.  Craig,  and 
P.  A.  Moses  were  amongst  the  most  active  leaders  at  that  time. 

East  Columbia  Conference. 

Under  the  presidency  of  Bishop  Hendrix  at  Spokane  Falls, 
Wash.,  on  September  3,  1890,  the  East  Columbia  Conference 
held  its  initial  session.    Its  territory  consisted  of  the  State  of 


History  of  Methodism. 


Idaho  and  all  those  parts  of  Oregon  and  Washington  east  of  a 
line  drawn  north  and  south  practically  through  the  middle  of 
these  States.  The  Conference  began  with  two  districts,  the 
Pendleton  and  the  Spokane,  of  the  first  of  which  E.  G.  Michael 
was  presiding  elder  and  of  the  latter  R.  B.  Swift.  At  this 
time  there  was  a  total  membership  of  1,056.  In  1915  the 
membership  was  reported  at  2,231.  The  names  of  H.  S.  Shan- 
gle,  G.  H.  Gibbs,  S.  B.  Tabor,  and  C.  R.  Howard,  with  others, 
are  worthy  of  mention  as  faithful  modern-day  workers  in  this 
interesting  field. 

The  Mission  Conferences. 
China  Mission  Conference. 

The  China  Mission  was  established  in  1848.  The  names  that 
are  forever  renowned  in  connection  with  this  movement  are 
Charles  Taylor,  J.  W.  Lambuth,  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  Young 
J.  Allen,  and  D.  C.  Kelley.  The  Conference  was  organized 
in  1886.  It  consists  of  three  districts,  the  Shanghai,  the  Soo- 
chow,  and  the  Huchow.  Two  of  the  presiding  elders  on  these 
districts  are  native  preachers.  The  presiding  elder  of  the 
Shanghai  District  is  Rev.  T.  A.  Hearn.  Bishop  Walter  R. 
Lambuth,  Dr.  C.  F.  Reid,  Dr.  A.  P.  Parker,  Dr.  W.  H.  Park, 
and  others  have  devoted  loyal  service  to  the  cause  of  the 
Church  in  this  Conference.  At  present  there  are  twenty-nine 
male  missionaries,  forty-eight  single  women,  and  twenty-five 
married  women  engaged  in  this  field.  There  are  one  hundred 
native  preachers  and  fifty-six  Bible  women.  In  all  there  are 
sixty-one  organized  Churches  and  0.126  members.  There  are 
eighty  Epworth  Leagues,  with  3.163  members,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  Sunday  schools,  with  11.107  scholars.  The 
Conference  owns  thirty-seven  houses  of  worship,  valued  at 
about  £170,000. 

Brazil  Mission  Conference. 

The  Brazil  Mission  was  established  in  1874.  Amongst  the 
pioneer  missionaries  to  Brazil  were  J.  L.  Kennedy,  J.  W.  Tar- 
boux,  H.  C.  Tucker,  J.  M.  Lander,  M.  Dickey,  J.  J.  Ransom,  and 
J.  W.  Wolling.  The  Conference  was  organized  in  the  year 
1880.    At  the  annual  session  held  in  Piracicaba  August  12, 


The  Mission  Conferences. 


1915,  Bishop  E.  D.  Mouzon  presiding,  there  was  reported  a  to 
tal  of  6,117  members,  au  increase  of  244  for  the  year.  There 
were  fifteen  Epworth  Leagues,  with  a  membership  of  534.  Sun- 
day schools  had  been  organized  to  the  number  of  ninety-eight, 
with  3,690  scholars.  There  were  twenty-nine  houses  of  wor- 
ship, valued  at  about  f 200,000. 

South  Brazil  Mission  Conference. 
The  South  Brazil  Mission  was  organized  in  1900  and  erected 
into  a  Conference  in  1910.  There  are  nineteen  societies  in  the 
Conference,  composing  thirteen  pastoral  charges.  The  total 
membership  is  1,474,  a  net  gain  of  seventy-two  for  the  year. 
There  are  twelve  houses  of  worship,  valued  at  $57,000.  There 
are  thirteen  Epworth  Leagues  and  twenty-one  Sunday  schools, 
with  a  combined  membership  of  more  than  2,000. 

German  Mission  Conference. 
The  German  Mission  Conference,  included  within  the  State 
of  Texas,  was  organized  in  1874,  being  now  in  its  forty-third 
year.  In  various  sketches  in  this  history  reference  has  been 
made  to  such  names  as  Vordenbaumen,  Paule,  Ahrens,  and  oth- 
er faithful  German  Methodists  wiio  pioneered  the  work  of 
the  Church  amongst  their  countrymen  in  the  Southwest.  As 
time  has  passed  and  the  life  of  the  country  has  expanded,  the 
descendants  of  these  noble  pioneers  have  thoroughly  learned 
the  English  language  and  assimilated  the  religious  and  social 
customs  of  their  neighbors.  In  consequence  the  field  of  the 
mission  has  been  continually  lessened.  But  there  still  remains 
a  fine  nucleus  of  these  sturdy  people,  and  they  have  held  their 
Conference  together  with  tenacity  and  interest.  It  now  con- 
sists of  two  districts,  with  twenty  appointments.  The  statistics 
for  the  current  year  show  1,811  members,  with  church  property 
valued  at  $76,520. 

Central  Mexico  Mission  Conference. 
The  Central  Mexico  Mission  was  originated  by  Bishop  John 
C.  Keener  in  1873.  A  pronounced  air  of  romance  and  apos- 
tolic adventure  attached  to  that  early  mission  movement.  It 
began  with  the  first  conditions  of  order  and  stability  in  the 
Diaz  republic.    In  1886  the  mission  was  organized  into  a 


470 


History  of  Methodism. 


Conference  and  for  a  number  of  years  bad  a  history  of  un- 
broken prosperity.  Schools  of  good  grade  were  established, 
and  the  missionaries  and  native  workers  pushed  out  into  a 
number  of  the  central  States  of  the  republic  and  instituted 
missions  in  chief  cities,  as  also  in  a  number  of  important  pro- 
vincial capitals.  During  the  last  few  years,  however,  the  work 
has  been  greatly  disorganized  by  reason  of  the  revolutions 
which  have  torn  that  unhappy  country.  The  last  available 
statistics  were  those  for  1914.  They  show  a  total  of  twenty- 
eight  traveling  preachers  and  2,534  members. 

Mexican  Border  Mission  Conference. 
The  Mexican  Border  Mission  Conference  is  now  the  most 
hopeful  of  the  mission  enterprises  of  the  Church  amongst  the 
Latin  people  on  the  North  American  continent.  The  Con- 
ference was  organized  in  1885.  The  last  statistical  report 
gives  the  following  details:  Organized  Churches,  36;  pastoral 
charges,  17;  traveling  preachers,  38;  total  membership,  1,594. 
There  are  18  Sunday  schools,  with  1,146  scholars;  Epwortb 
Leagues,  5,  with  250  members.  There  are  23  houses  of  wor- 
ship, valued  at  $117,650. 

The  Missions. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  has,  in  addition  to 
its  six  Mission  Conferences,  six  missions  which  have  not  yet 
been  organized,  as  follows:  Japan  Mission,  Korea  Mission, 
Pacific  Mexican  Mission,  Texas  Mexican  Mission,  Cuba  Mis 
sion,  and  the  mission  in  Africa,  the  Congo  Mission. 

Japan  Mission. 

The  Japan  Mission  was  established  in  1886  under  the  direct 
superin tendency  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Lambuth  and  his  son,  Rev.  W. 
R.  Lambuth,  now  a  bishop  in  the  Church.  Many  devoted  and 
faithful  men  have  given  time  and  labor  to  the  rich  mission 
field  which  the  Church  has  found  in  the  empire  of  Japan. 
Amongst  these  may  be  mentioned  the  names  of  S.  H.  Wain- 
right,  T.  H.  Haden,  J.  C.  C.  Newton,  S.  E.  Hager,  W.  G.  Cal 
lahan,  C.  B.  Moseley,  and  others.  In  1907  the  Methodisl 
Church  of  Japan  was  organized  and  absorbed  the  established 
work  of  the  Methodist  Church,  North,  the  Methodist  Chnrch, 
South,  and  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada.    The  Church, 


The  Missions. 


471 


however,  continues  to  maintain  a  mission  work  in  this  field, 
which  is,  as  fast  as  developed,  incorporated  in  the  national 
Church.  Under  the  care  of  the  missionaries  of  Southern  Meth- 
odism are  fifty-seven  preaching  places,  thirty-two  organized 
Churches,  and  nine  hundred  and  twenty-three  members.  In- 
corporated in  the  Church  of  Japan,  but  formerly  a  part  of  the 
Church's  mission,  are  seventeen  preaching  places,  sixteen  or- 
ganized Churches,  and  1,751  members.  In  1015  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church  reported  12,000  members  and  27,000  Sunday 
school  scholars,  with  an  increase  of  626  Church  members  for 
the  year. 

Korea  Mission. 

The  work  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Mission  in  Korea  dates 
from  April,  1897.  At  that  time  Dr.  C.  F.  Reid  held  his  first 
service  in  the  city  of  Seoul  and  one  month  later  baptized  his 
first  convert.  During  the  same  month  Rev.  C.  T.  Collyer  was 
sent  to  Songdo  and  began  work  at  that  station.  There  were 
then  seven  hundred  Christians  among  the  twelve  million  in- 
habitants of  the  Korean  Empire.  The  history  of  the  succeed- 
ing years  has  been  marked  by  striking  illustrations  of  the 
favor  of  God  on  the  mission  and  the  call  of  the  people.  At  the 
end  of  the  first  eighteen  months  the  missionaries  had  but  two 
converts;  at  the  end  of  the  next  ten  years  there  was  reported 
a  membership  of  2,828.  The  statistics  of  1915,  taken  at  the 
close  of  the  first  eighteen  years  of  the  mission's  history,  show 
between  seven  and  eight  thousand  members,  including  proba- 
tioners. At  times  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  Korea  has 
presented  phenomenal  aspects.  Great  revivals  have  attended 
the  progress  of  the  mission.  In  1909  the  Koreans  themselves 
started  a  movement  for  the  conversion  of  a  million  souls  in  a 
single  year.  The  calamities  which  the  great  Russo-Japanese 
War  brought  upon  the  empire  seem  only  to  have  increased  the 
hunger  of  the  people  for  the  gospel. 

Texas  Mexican  Mission. 

The  Texas  Mexican  Mission  was  organized  in  1914.  It  em- 
braces territory  within  the  State  of  Texas,  including  the  Mexi- 
can contingents  of  Southern  and  Southwestern  Texas  cities. 
The  first  session  of  the  mission  was  held  under  the  presidency 


472 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  Bishop  Candler  at  Corpus  Christi  in  October,  1915.  Rev. 
F.  S.  Onderdonk,  superintendent  of  the  mission,  made  at  this 
sitting  a  most  gratifying  report.  The  total  membership  was 
shown  to  be  2,149,  with  395  additions  on  profession  of  faith 
and  174  by  letter.  The  baptisms  for  the  year  aggregated  357. 
Church  property  to  the  value  of  # 50,000  was  reported.  Total 
collections  for  all  purposes  amounted  to  approximately  85,000. 

Pacific  Mexican  Mission. 

The  Pacific  Mexican  Mission  was  organized  in  1914  under 
the  same  order  as  that  under  which  the  Texas  Mexican  Mission 
came  into  existence.  At  the  session  of  the  mission  held  in 
Xogales,  Arizona,  in  January,  1916,  under  the  presidency  of 
Bishop  Candler,  a  total  membership  of  5G5  was  reported.  The 
mission  is  in  an  almost  entirely  new  field  and  embraces  the 
Xorthwest  Pacific  regions  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  with  the 
Mexican  populations  of  the  towns  of  Southern  California  and 
Arizona.  The  Rev.  J.  F.  Corbin,  a  veteran  missionary  of  the 
older  Mexican  field,  is  the  superintendent  of  this  new  work. 
Together  with  Dr.  D.  W.  Carter,  Mr.  Corbin  has  been  distin- 
guished as  leader  and  organizer  in  the  Mexican  mission  field  of 
the  Church.    Their  work  will  endure. 

Cuba  Mission. 

The  Cuba  Mission  was  established  in  1898,  the  religious  first 
fruits  of  the  Spanish-American  War.  With  the  coming  of 
political  freedom  to  that  long-oppressed  island,  its  people  be- 
gan to  stretch  forth  their  hands  toward  the  great  Protestant 
parallels  of  the  continent,  asking  for  the  gospel.  Under  the 
leadership  of  Bishop  Candler,  in  the  year  1898  the  mission 
was  formally  opened.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Pullwood,  of  Florida,  had 
previously  preached  to  the  Cubans  in  Key  West,  Fla.,  and  the 
influence  of  his  work  had  extended  to  Cuba.  With  the  going 
of  the  missionaries  the  country  was  found  open,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  schools  and  mission  chapels  met  an  early  and 
a  cordial  response  from  the  people.  The  latest  statistics  show 
in  the  island  a  membership  of  4,076,  with  thirty-five  mission- 
aries, fifty-one  organized  Churches,  and  a  total  value  in  Church 
property  of  about  SI 80.000.     There  are  fifty-seven  Sunday 


The  Missions. 


478 


schools,  with  between  three  and  four  thousand  scholars,  and 
seventeen  Epworth  Leagues,  with  a  membership  of  five  hun- 
dred. 

Congo  Mission. 

Bishop  Soule,  the  first  senior  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  hungered  as  early  as  1842  to  visit  the 
shores  of  Africa  as  a  missionary.  Ever  since  those  eventful 
years  the  Methodism  of  the  South  has  thought  of  the  possi- 
bility of  realizing  the  dream  of  its  great  bishop;  but  not  un- 
til 1914  did  anything  tangible  come  to  pass  looking  toward 
that  end.  In  that  year  Bishop  Lambuth,  with  Rev.  J.  W.  Gil- 
bert, a  minister  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Church,  visited  the 
Congo  Basin  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a  Church  mission. 
At  the  end  of  a  year  a  society  of  thirty-three  members  was  re- 
ported, a  training  school  for  boys  with  seventy  pupils,  and  a 
day  school  for  both  sexes  with  an  attendance  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy.  Within  the  last  year  the  mission  force  has  been 
increased  to  two  or  three  families,  who,  with  the  native  helpers, 
have  begun  to  sow  the  seeds  in  the  soil  of  that  benighted  land. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


SCHOOLS  OF  SOUTHERN  METHODISM. 


ROM  its  beginning  American  Methodism  has  been  com- 


_JJ  mitted  to  the  work  of  education.  Next  to  the  spiritual 
salvation  of  men,  Francis  Asbury  was  concerned  about  the 
establishment  of  primary  and  collegiate  schools.  He  expended 
his  best  energies  in  that  direction.  The  earliest  schools  of 
the  Church  were  established  in  the  territory  embraced  within 
the  limits  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South.  No  history  of  the 
Connection  whose  jurisdiction  is  over  these  latitudes  would, 
therefore,  be  complete  without  a  particular  account  of  its  edu- 
cational enterprises. 


In  the  chapter  of  this  history  which  deals  with  the  action  of 
the  Church  in  connection  with  the  settlement  of  the  Vander- 
bilt  case  we  have  given  a  full  account  of  the  emergence  of  the 
Church's  plan  for  the  establishment  of  two  universities,  one 
east  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver,  the  other  west.  In  pursuance  of 
this  purpose  an  educational  commission  was  appointed  whose 
business  it  was  made  to  plan  for  and  locate  these  institutions. 
The  foundation  of  the  new  university  at  Dallas  being  large 
and  full  of  prophetic  promise,  the  commission  recognized  it  as 
the  institution  to  be  patronized  by  the  Methodism  of  the  West. 
Proper  acknowledgment  of  this  fact  was  made  by  the  trustees 
of  that  university,  and  the  necessary  legal  changes  were  effect- 
ed in  its  titles. 

We  have  given  elsewhere  the  personnel  of  the  educational 
commission.  It  held  a  meeting  for  organization  during  the 
session  of  the  General  Conference  at  Oklahoma  City.  The 
first  meeting  called  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Conference 
was  at  Birmingham,  Ala.,  June  17,  1014.  Having  disposed  of 
the  matter  of  selecting  or  designating  the  school  in  the  West, 
the  commission  took  up  the  wrork  of  locating  the  university  east 
of  the  Mississippi  River.  The  result  of  this  deliberation  was 
that  an  adjournment  was  taken  after  giving  notice  that  the 


Emory  University. 


(474) 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


475 


commission  was  "ready  to  look  into  the  advantages  to  be  of- 
fered by  the  cities  and  communities  that  may  be  interested  in 
securing  the  location  of  the  proposed  university."  The  com- 
mission met  again  on  July  14,  1914,  in  the  Piedmont  Hotel,  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.  After  full  consideration  it  was  decided  to  locate- 
the  university  at  Atlanta,  that  city  having  tendered  a  gift  of 
$500,000.  The  Wesley  Memorial  Hospital  offered  that  insti- 
tution for  the  use  of  the  School  of  Medicine.  On  July  16  Mr. 
Asa  Candler  addressed  a  letter  to  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mission in  which  he  agreed  to  donate  the  sum  of  $1,000,000 
for  the  "endowment  of  an  institution,  the  plans  and  methods 
of  which  are  to  be  definitely  directed  to  the  advancement  of 
sound  learning  and  pure  religion."  Rev.  T.  T.  Fishburne,  a 
member  of  the  commission,  immediately  added  the  sum  of 
$25,000.  The  founding  of  the  university  being  thus  assured, 
the  commission  took  steps  looking  to  the  opening  of  the  School 
of  Theology.  The  trustees  of  the  Wesley  Memorial  Building 
had  already  offered  the  auditorium,  halls,  and  rooms  of  that 
commodious  structure  for  this  use.  On  the  17th  of  June  a 
communication  had  been  received  by  the  commission  from  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  Emory  College,  at  Oxford,  Ga.,  which  re- 
sulted in  that  institution  becoming  the  collegiate  department 
of  the  new  institution  and  giving  to  it  the  name  of  Emory  Uni- 
versity. 

Emory  College,  which  had  been  named  in  honor  of  Bishop 
John  Emory,  was  founded  by  the  Georgia  Conference  in  1836. 
The  trustees  bought  fourteen  hundred  acres  of  land  near  Cov- 
ington and  there  located  the  new  school,  giving  to  the  place 
the  classic  name  of  Oxford.  The  opening  of  the  college  oc- 
curred in  1837,  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Ignatius  A.  Few. 
The  first  class  was  graduated  in  1841.  Since  that  time  nearly 
two  thousand  men  have  received  diplomas  at  its  annual  com- 
mencements. Amongst  these  are  mentioned  the  names  of  Judge 
L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  and  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood.  It  is  well 
known  that  Bishop  Haygood  was  for  many  years  President  of 
this  college,  during  which  time  Mr.  George  I.  Seney,  of  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  p-ave  $100,000,  to  be  added  to  its  building  and  other 
funds.  Bishop  Haygood  was  succeeded  by  Bishop  W.  A. 
Candler,  during  whose  presidency  $125,000  was  added  to  the 


47G 


History  of  Methodism. 


incorporation.  Dr.  E.  C.  Dowman  succeeded  Bishop  Candler. 
During  his  presidency  the  college  enjoyed  much  prosperity. 
Dr.  James  E.  Dickey  followed  Dr.  Dowman,  and  during  his 
incumbency  in  office  a  number  of  new  buildings  were  added  to 
the  equipment  and  $300,000  to  the  endowment.  Besides  the 
Presidents  already  mentioned,  the  following-named  distin- 
guished men  have  been  at  the  head  of  this  college:  Augustus  B. 
Longstreet,  George  F.  Pierce,  Alexander  Means,  James  R. 
Thomas,  Luther  M.  Smith,  O.  L.  Smith,  and  Isaac  S.  Hopkins. 

The  two  years  of  work  done  by  the  new  School  of  Theology 
of  Emory  University,  which  has  been  named  by  the  Board  of 
Trustees  the  Candler  School  of  Theology,  have  been  marked 
by  success  and  pledges  of  continued  enlargement.  Dr.  Plato 
Durham,  the  Dean  of  that  school,  with  a  faculty  of  able  men, 
has  fully  met  the  expectations  of  the  Church. 

The  Atlanta  Medical  College,  having  been  tendered  to  the 
university,  was  accepted  by  the  trustees  and  made  its  med- 
ical school,  the  legal  transfer  being  completed  in  1915.  In 
addition  to  his  munificent  gift  of  money,  Mr.  Asa  Candler 
X>resented  the  university  with  a  handsome  tract  of  land  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  city  of  Atlanta,  in  the  delightful  environ  known 
as  Druid  Hills.  This  tract,  which  embraces  a  little  more  than 
one  hundred  acres,  is  beautifully  located  and  admirably  adapt- 
ed to  the  large  use  to  which  it  has  been  dedicated.  Already 
sumptuous  buildings  have  been  designed  and  are  in  process  of 
erection  upon  this  ample  campus.  The  university  opened  in 
September,  1915,  with  three  schools  ready  for  service — viz.,  the 
School  of  Liberal  Arts,  at  Oxford,  the  School  of  Theology,  and 
the  School  of  Medicine.  In  addition  to  these  schools,  the  foun- 
dation of  a  law  school,  to  be  known  as  the  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar 
School  of  Law,  had  been  laid,  and  this  was  opened  in  1916. 

The  possibility  of  this  great  institution  hinged  upon  the  ex- 
ceptional liberality  of  Mr.  Asa  G.  Candler,  whose  gift  to  the 
Church  is  without  condition  or  reversionary  feature.  It  is  the 
expression  of  his  loyalty  to  Methodism  and  his  ideals  of  Chris- 
tian education.  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  whose  large  and  suc- 
cessful experience  in  educational  work  is  already  a  part  of  the 
Church's  history,  was  by  the  Educational  Commission  made 
Chancellor  of  the  new  university. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


477 


Southern  Methodist  University. 
The  steady  growth  and  phenomenal  enlargement  of  the  Meth- 
odism of  Texas  led  its  people  to  feel  that  the  time  had  come  for 
laying  more  broadly  the  foundations  of  their  great  central 
educational  institution.  Many  of  the  leaders  were  brought  to 
feel  that  Georgetown,  the  site  of  the  university,  which  had  been 
planned  as  early  as  1876,  was  not  so  well  suited  for  this  larger 
enterprise  as  was  Dallas,  the  chief  city  of  the  State.  A  com- 
mission appointed  by  the  several  Annual  Conferences  decided 
in  1911  that  a  new  and  larger  educational  enterprise  should  be 
entered  upon  and  that  the  Church's  university  should  be  lo- 
cated at  Dallas,  Tex.  Large  subscriptions  were  received  to 
this  end,  and  citizens  of  the  city  of  Dallas  supplemented  these 
with  generous  donations  of  lands  and  otherwise  opened  the  way 
for  the  success  of  the  movement.  The  result  is  that  at  the  end 
of  five  or  six  years  the  new  university  possesses  a  body  of  land 
of  more  than  six  hundred  acres,  lying  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
prosperous  city,  sections  of  which  have  already  been  embraced 
by  the  rapidly  advancing  urban  improvements.  One  hundred 
and  thirty-two  acres  have  been  reserved  for  the  campus.  The 
remainder  is  held  to  be  disposed  of  as  city  lots  and  building 
sites  when  the  time  comes  for  sale.  In  this  land  the  university 
has  the  possibility  of  an  almost  princely  endowment.  The  site 
is  one  of  exceptional  natural  beauty.  The  administration  build- 
ing, which  is  one  of  the  finest  structures  devoted  to  education 
to  be  found  in  America,  stands  upon  an  elevation  which  gives 
it  a  commanding  view  of  the  city  on  one  side  and  the  pleasing 
countryside  on  the  other.  Besides  the  administration  build- 
ing, a  number  of  dormitories  and  other  halls  have  been  erected. 
The  university  has  already  the  beginnings  of  great  equipments 
in  libraries,  laboratories,  museum,  athletic  fields,  publication 
offices,  etc. 

As  has  already  been  noted,  the  General  Conference  of  1914 
resolved  to  establish  two  connectional  universities,  one  east 
and  one  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  These  universities,  in 
addition  to  being  pitched  on  a  plane  of  the  highest  educational 
ideals,  were  designed  to  be  the  great  theological  schools  of  the 
Connection.  The  inception  of  Vanderbilt  University  was  coin- 
cident with  the  Church's  ideal  of  a  school  for  the  education  of 


478 


History  of  Methodism. 


its  ministry.  When  it  finally  abandoned  the  historic  wreckage 
of  that  ideal  at  Yanderbilt,  it  took  up  the  original  vision  with 
a  new  purpose  and  with  a  more  intelligent  foresight.  The 
foundation  at  Dallas  having  been  brought  already  to  a  point  of 
commanding  success,  the  General  Conference  recognized  it  and 
named  it  as  the  university  foundation  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  This  gives  to  the  university  a  vast  field  of  patronage,  a 
field  growing  in  membership  and  reduplicating  its  potencies 
decade  after  decade. 

Rev.  Robert  Stewart  Hyer,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  who  had  long  been 
Regent  of  the  Southwestern  University  before  the  emergence  of 
the  new  and  larger  plan,  was  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  named 
as  President  of  the  new  university.  He  also  fills  the  chair  of 
physics.  Since  his  graduation  from  college  Dr.  Hyer  has  been 
engaged  in  educational  work  in  Texas.  There  are  few  educators 
in  our  Church  who  have  had  a  longer  and  more  successful  ex- 
perience. 

The  Theological  Department  of  Southern  Methodist  Univer- 
sity promises  much  to  the  Church  as  a  means  of  fitting  a  min- 
istry for  the  great  field  of  the  Southwest.  Rev.  Hoyt  M.  Dobbs, 
D.D.,  the  newly  elected  Dean  of  that  department  comes  to  his 
work  under  tokens  that  insure  his  success. 

Raxdolph-Macox  System  of  Colleges  axd  Academies. 

The  Randolph-Macon  System  of  Colleges  and  Academies 
consists  of  two  standard  colleges,  one  for  men  at  Ashland, 
Va.,  and  one  for  women  at  Lynchburg,  Ya.,  and  three  high- 
grade  preparatory  schools,  two  for  boys  located  respectively 
at  Bedford  City,  Ya.,  and  Front  Royal,  Ya.,  and  one  for  girls 
at  Danville,  Ya.  These  institutions  were  founded  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  are 
controlled  by  a  single  Board  of  Trustees  acting  under  a  char- 
ter granted  by  the  State  of  Virginia  in  1830  and  since  amended 
to  meet  the  enlarged  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  corpora- 
tion. In  a  true  sense  these  institutions  are  the  survivals  and 
successors  of  the  earliest  educational  movements  of  American 
Methodism,  such  as  the  Cokesbury  College,  at  Abingdon,  Md., 
projected  in  17S4,  the  Ebenezer  Academy,  projected  later  in 
Virginia,  and  other  like  enterprises  in  this  territory.    Dr.  W. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


479 


W.  Smith,  as  President  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  in  1880 
advocated  the  policy  of  establishing  preparatory  schools  under 
the  immediate  control  of  the  college.  To  this  end  an  amend- 
ment to  the  charter  was  secured  in  1890  granting  to  the  trus- 
tees authority  to  erect  and  maintain  in  any  part  of  the  com- 
monwealth "such  schools,  academies,  and  other  institutions 
of  learning  for  the  instruction  of  the  youth  of  the  land  as 
to  them  may  seem  desirable."  Acting  on  this  authority,  Dr. 
Smith  established  a  training  school  for  boys  at  Bedford  City 
in  1S90  and  another  at  Front  Royal  in  1892  and  later  the 
school  at  Danville. 

Reports  during  the  year  1914-15  for  the  entire  Randolph-Ma- 
con System  showed  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  officers 
and  teachers  and  a  total  enrollment  of  students  in  the  five  insti- 
tutions of  1,401.  The  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustee's  of  the 
Randolph-Macon  System  are  elected  after  their  nomination 
has  been  approved  by  the  Virginia  and  Baltimore  Conferences. 

Randolph-Macon  College  for  men,  located  at  Ashland,  Va.,  is 
the  oldest  Methodist  college  in  America  by  date  of  incorpora- 
tion. The  movement  to  establish  this  school  was  begun  in  the 
recommendation  of  the  General  Conference  of  1824,  which  de- 
termined "that  each  Annual  Conference  establish  a  seminary  of 
learning  under  its  own  regulation  and  patronage."  Acting 
under  this  advice,  the  Virginia  Conference,  at  its  session  in  the 
following  year,  took  up  the  matter  of  establishing  a  seminary 
within  its  bounds.  The  promoters  of  this  undertaking,  and 
now  known  as  the  founders  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  were 
the  Rev.  Hezekiah  G.  Leigh,  of  the  Virginia  Conference,  and 
Gabriel  P.  Disosway,  a  discreet  and  generous  layman,  both  of 
whom  were  at  that  time  residents  of  the  city  of  Petersburg. 
The  Board  of  Trustees  was  formally  and  legally  organized  in 
1830,  with  the  Rev.  John  Early  as  Chairman  and  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam A.  Smith  as  Secretary.  It  was  at  this  time  ordered  that 
suitable  buildings  be  erected  as  early  as  practicable.  The  site 
selected  was  near  the  village  of  Boydton,  in  Mecklenburg 
County,  near  the  line  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  This 
situation  was  chosen  with  a  view  to  accommodating  the  two 
States  most  interested,  Virginia  and  North  Carolina. 

Randolph-Macon  began  its  scholastic  work  in  January,  1832, 


180 


History  of  Methodism. 


when  Hugh  A.  Garland,  brother  of  Dr.  Landon  C.  Garland, 
taught  the  first  class  in  the  preparatory  department.  The  col- 
lege proper  began  its  work  the  next  October,  with  the  Rev. 
Martin  P.  Parks  as  President  pro  tempore.  The  Rev.  John 
Emory,  afterwards  bishop,  was  the  first  President-elect.  The 
Rev.  Stephen  Olin  was  the  first  to  accept  and  serve. 

The  first  graduate  was  John  C.  Blackwell,  of  Virginia,  whose 
diploma  was  conferred  in  June,  1835.  The  first  class  taking 
the  whole  four  years'  course  received  their  degrees  the  next 
year.  From  that  time  continuously,  with  the  exception  of  sev- 
eral years  during  and  immediately  after  the  war,  classes  have 
been  graduated. 

For  many  years  the  career  of  the  college  was  a  struggle  for 
existence;  but  during  these  years  of  stress  and  trial,  without 
endowment,  it  did  a  great  and  useful  work.  Many  of  the  fore- 
most men  of  Methodism  were  connected  with  it,  and  from  its 
body  of  students  went  out  men  of  renown  in  Church  and  State, 
not  a  few  whose  lives  have  proved  a  signal  blessing  to  the 
world. 

The  first  regular  endowment  fund  was  raised,  just  before 
the  War  between  the  States,  by  President  William  A.  Smith 
and  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Cowles.  But  the  war  closed  the  doors  of 
the  college  and  rendered  most  of  its  endowment  worthless. 

In  1866  it  w^as  reopened  under  serious  embarrassment.  Rail- 
ways had  been  destroyed  by  the  war;  the  nearest  was  now  a 
day's  journey  from  the  college.  Besides,  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  had  established  a  college  of  its  own,  whose  patroniz- 
ing territory  was  almost  in  sight  of  Randolph-Macon.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Baltimore  Conference,  at  its  session  in  March. 
1^07,  had  offered  its  patronage  to  the  college  and  had  been 
admitted  into  participation  in  its  supervision  and  privileges. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  removal  of  the  institution  to  a 
more  suitable  locality  became  necessary. 

Happily,  the  ideal  leader  in  this  hazardous  new  departure 
was  secured  in  the  person  of  the  Rev.  James  A.  Duncan,  D.D., 
an  alumnus  of  the  class  of  1849  and  one  of  the  most  highly 
gifted  men  of  his  day.  Under  his  presidency  the  college  began 
its  career  at  Ashland.  Va.,  its  present  site,  in  September,  1868, 
and  very  soon  it  reached  a  height  of  prosperity  and  influence 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


481 


to  which  it  had  never  before  attained.  In  its  service  the  Presi- 
dent laid  down  his  life,  universally  loved  and  honored. 

The  successor  of  Dr.  Duncan  was  the  Rev.  W.  W.  Bennett, 
D.D.,  an  able  and  faithful  worker.  In  the  year  1886  Dr. 
Bennett,  in  broken  health,  resigned,  and  in  the  same  year  Dr. 
William  W.  Smith  was  elected  President. 

Under  Dr.  Smith's  administration  the  endowment  was  large- 
ly increased,  four  new  buildings  were  erected,  including  a 
new  gymnasium,  physical  culture  was  made  a  part  of  the 
course,  and  the  library  and  the  laboratories  were  greatly  en- 
larged and  improved.  But  the  most  notable  feature  of  this 
administration  was  the  founding  of  the  academies  at  Bedford 
City  in  1890  and  Front  Royal  in  1892  and  of  the  Randolph- 
Macon  Woman's  College  at  Lynchburg  in  1893.  All  these  in- 
stitutions, together  with  the  parent  college  and  the  Danville 
Institute  for  Young  Ladies,  admitted  in  1897,  are  now  under- 
one  Board  of  Trustees  and,  as  noted  above,  are  united  in  a 
single  educational  system. 

In  the  year  1896  Dr.  Smith  was  made  Chancellor  of  the 
Randolph-Macon  System  of  Colleges  and  Academies,  and  Rev. 
J.  A.  Kern,  D.D.,  became  President  of  the  college.  President 
Kern  resigned  in  1899,  and  Rev.  W.  G.  Starr,  A.M.,  D.D.,  was 
elected  President,  but  resigned  in  1902,  and  R.  E.  Blackwell, 
A.M.,  LL.D.,  was  chosen  as  his  successor. 

The  names  of  the  several  Presidents  of  Randolph-Macon 
College,  together  with  the  terms  of  their  incumbency,  are  as 
follows:  Rev.  Stephen  Olin,  D.D.,  1833-37;  Landon  C.  Garland, 
LL.D.,  1837-46;  Rev.  William  A.  Smith,  D.D.,  1846-66;  Col. 
Thomas  C.  Johnson,  1866-68;  Rev.  James  A.  Duncan,  D.D., 
1868-77;  Rev.  W.  W.  Bennett,  D.D.,  1877-86 ;  William  W.  Smith, 
LL.D.,  1886-96;  Rev.  John  A.  Kern,  D.D.,  1896-99;  Rev.  W.  G. 
Starr,  D.D.,  1899-1902;  R.  E.  Blackwell,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  1902. 

Trinity  College. 

The  history  of  Trinity  College  is  divided  into  five  distinct 
periods:  (1)  The  Academy,  or  Union  Institute;  (2)  Normal 
College,  or  a  State  institution  for  the  training  of  teachers; 
(3)  Trinity  College,  or  a  denominational  institution;  (4)  the 
31 


482 


History  of  Methodism. 


removal  of  the  college  to  Durham,  N.  C. ;  and  (5)  the  expan- 
sion of  the  college. 

In  1838  certain  citizens  of  Randolph  County,  N.  C,  estab- 
lished in  that  county  a  school  of  academic  grade  and  named  it 
Union  Institute.  Rev.  Brantley  York,  a  local  Methodist  preach- 
er, was  chosen  Principal  and  remained  in  charge  of  the  school 
until  1842,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Braxton  Craven,  an- 
other local  Methodist  preacher.  Under  Dr.  Craven's  leadership 
the  institution  developed  into  a  popular  academy,  drawing  pat- 
ronage from  a  large  section  of  North  Carolina  and  adjoining 
States. 

The  public  school  system  of  North  Carolina  was  inaugurated 
in  1840,  and  the  need  of  an  institution  for  the  training  of  teach- 
ers was  felt  immediately.  Therefore  in  1848  teacher-training 
courses  were  added  to  the  academy,  and  in  1851  a  new  charter 
was  secured,  changing  the  name  to  Normal  College.  In  1852 
the  institution  was  authorized  to  confer  degrees  and  license 
teachers  of  the  public  school.  The  State  loaned  Normal  Col- 
lege ten  thousand  dollars  with  which  to  erect  a  suitable  build- 
ing. The  Governor  was  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
and  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  was  Sec- 
retary. 

In  1851)  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  became  invested  with  the  complete 
ownership  and  control  of  the  institution,  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  Trinity  College.  Under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Cra- 
ven, plans  were  perfected  for  erecting  new  buildings  and  for 
raising  a  large  endowment;  but  the  outbreak  of  the  War  be- 
tween the  States  changed  everything,  and  the  institution  was 
finally  compelled  to  close  its  doors. 

The  college  was  reopened  in  January,  1866,  with  Rev.  Brax- 
ton Craven  as  President.  The  scope  of  its  work  was  broadened 
by  adding  the  departments  of  law,  theology,  engineering,  and 
normal  training,  by  instituting  a  liberal  elective  system,  and 
by  increasing  the  capacity  of  the  building.  During  the  late 
sixties  and  the  early  seventies  Trinity  College  became  the  lead- 
ing educational  institution  in  North  Carolina,  and  it  served 
both  the  Church  and  the  State  at  a  time  when  the  State  Uni- 
versity was  closed. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


483 


Dr.  Craven  died  iii  1882  and  was  succeeded  first  by  Dr.  Mar- 
cus L.  Wood  and  later  (1887)  by  Dr.  John  F.  Crowell,  who 
conceived  the  idea  of  enlarging  still  more  the  scope  of  the  col- 
lege by  moving  it  to  one  of  the  larger  cities  of  the  State  and 
securing  better  buildings  and  equipment.  The  North  Carolina 
Conference  in  1889,  therefore,  authorized  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees to  move  the  college.  Citizens  of  the  town  of  Durham  gave 
grounds  and  suitable  buildings ;  and  in  September,  1802,  Trin- 
ity College  opened  its  first  session  in  Durham,  N.  C.  The  plant 
then  consisted  of  the  Washington  Duke  Building,  Epworth 
Hall,  the  Crowell  Science  Building,  and  five  residences,  located 
on  a  campus  of  seventy  acres  of  land. 

In  1894  Dr.  Crowell  resigned  the  presidency ;  and  Rev.  John 
C.  Kilgo,  of  South  Carolina,  was  elected  President.  Dr.  Kilgo's 
administration  is  noted  especially  for  raising  the  standard  of 
the  college  and  broadening  the  scope  of  its  work ;  for  arousing 
in  students  and  alumni,  successful  business  men  and  philan- 
thropists, Church  leaders  and  sincere  friends  of  education,  an 
enthusiastic  confidence  in  the  college;  for  introducing  efficient 
business  administration ;  for  opening  the  institution  to  wom- 
en;  for  establishing  the  Trinity  Park  (preparatory)  School; 
for  laying  the  plans  and  securing  the  funds  for  building  the 
Greater  Trinity  College.  Having  been  elected  a  bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  Dr.  Kilgo  resigned  the 
presidency  in  June,  1910,  and  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  William 
Preston  Few,  the  Dean  of  the  college.  Under  Dr.  Few's  ad- 
ministration the  patronage  of  the  college  has  greatly  increased, 
large  donations  have  been  received,  the  rebuilding  of  the  college 
plant  has  been  continued,  and  the  institution  has  entered  upon 
an  era  known  in  the  history  of  the  college  as  Greater  Trinity 
College. 

A  few  statistics  will  show  the  remarkable  growth  of  the 
college  since  its  removal  to  Durham.  The  total  holdings  of 
the  college,  including  endowment,  buildings,  equipment,  and 
ground,  are  valued  at  #2,546,281.  The  productive  endowment 
is  |1,595,306.  Mr.  Washington  Duke,  one  of  the  first  benefac- 
tors of  the  college  and  the  one  largely  responsible  for  moving 
the  institution  to  Durham,  gave  to  this  amount  #480,000;  an  1 
his  two  sons,  Messrs.  B.  N.  Duke  and  J.  B.  Duke,  have  made 


484 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  Greater  Trinity  College  possible  by  giving  a  total  of  $1,- 
858,500.  Other  benefactors  of  the  college  are:  Gen.  Julian  S. 
Carr,  the  General  Education  Board,  the  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence, the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference,  the  alumni,  and  a 
host  of  interested  friends  who  have  contributed  to  the  perma- 
nent endowment  fund,  established  scholarships  and  lecture- 
ships, donated  libraries,  given  masterpieces  of  art,  and  pro- 
vided loan  funds  for  deserving  young  men  and  young  women. 

The  college  corporation  includes  Trinity  College  and  Trinity 
Park  School,  situated  on  a  campus  of  one  hundred  and  two 
acres.  The  college  buildings  embrace  the  Washington  Duke 
Building  (east  wing  and  west  wing),  the  Crowell  Science 
Building,  the  Craven  Memorial  Hall,  Angier  Duke  Gymnasium, 
the  Library,  four  dormitories  (Alspaugh  Hall,  Aycock  Hall, 
Jarvis  Hall,  and  Epworth  Hall),  and  six  residences.  Trinity 
Park  School  embraces  Asbury  Building,  Bivins  Hall,  Lanier- 
Hall,  Branson  Hall,  York  Dining  Hall,  and  three  residences. 
The  total  number  of  students  for  the  year  1915-16  was  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-eight. 

The  ideal  of  the  college  is  expressed  in  the  first  article  of  the 
constitution  and  by-laws,  as  follows : 

The  aims  of  Trinity  College  are  to  assert  a  faith  in  the  eternal 
union  of  knowledge  and  religion  set  forth  in  the  teachings  and  char- 
acter of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  to  advance  learning  in  all  lines 
of  truth;  to  defend  scholarship  against  all  false  notions  and  ideals; 
to  develop  a  Christian  love  of  freedom  and  truth;  to  promote  a  sin- 
cere spirit  of  tolerance;  to  discourage  all  partisan  and  sectarian 
strife;  and  to  render  the  largest  permanent  service  to  the  individual, 
the  State,  the  nation,  and  the  Church.  Unto  these  ends  shall  the 
affairs  of  this  college  always  be  administered. 

Wofford  College. 

On  March  7,  1793,  Bishop  Asbury  wrote  this  in  his  Journal : 
"Preached  at  Finch's.  I  consulted  the  minds  of  our  brethren 
about  building  a  house  for  conference,  preaching,  and  a  dis- 
trict school;  but  I  have  no  grounds  to  believe  that  our  well- 
laid  plans  will  be  executed.  Our  preachers  are  unskillful,  and 
our  friends  have  little  money."  This  sermon  and  this  consulta- 
tion mark  the  beginning  of  Methodist  education  in  South 
Carolina.    In  spite  of  his  having  "no  ground  to  believe,"  two 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


485 


years  later,  March  20,  1795,  he  dedicated  the  Mount  Bethel 
Academy,  in  the  Newberry  District,  with  its  two-story,  rough, 
unhewn  stone  building  and  its  small  cabins  for  its  three  teach- 
ers— a  school  which  for  nearly  thirty  years  trained  some  of  the 
great  men  of  South  Carolina.  For  twenty  years  the  Bishop  paid 
annual  visits  to  the  school  he  had  founded.  However,  in  spite 
of  its  extraordinary  service,  its  prosperity  declined;  and  in 
the  year  1820  it  went  the  way  of  so  many  Methodist  schools. 
But,  not  far  off,  Tabernacle  Academy  was  established,  famous 
for  Stephen  Olin's  conversion  and  immortal  work.  A  little 
later,  in  the  same  neighborhood,  Mount  Ariel  Academy  was  in- 
augurated. 

In  1832  the  South  Carolina  Conference  joined  with  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference  for  "the  establishment  of  a  well-endowed  col- 
lege, purely  literary  and  scientific,  in  a  desirable  place  in  the 
Southern  Atlantic  States  and  under  the  direction  and  control 
of  a  faculty  and  a  Board  of  Trustees  consisting,  and  perpet- 
ually to  consist,  of  the  members  and  friends  of  our  Church." 
(South  Carolina  Conference  resolutions.)  The  next  year,  1833, 
a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  "to  inquire  after  the  most 
eligible  site  wTithin  the  limits  of  this  Conference  district  for  a 
school  or  an  academy  under  the  direction  of  the  Conference" 
to  prepare  boys  for  Randolph-Macon  College.  Out  of  this  res- 
olution there  came  in  1835  the  well-known  Cokesbury  School, 
an  institution  that  exercised  for  many  years  an  influence  upon 
education  in  South  Carolina  much  broader  than  Methodist 
circles.  The  agitation  and  activity  in  behalf  of  these  schools 
really  created  the  sentiment  out  of  which  Wofford  grew,  and 
they  are  therefore  a  part  of  its  history. 

On  December  5,  1850,  there  died  in  Spartanburg  the  Rev. 
Benjamin  Wofford,  a  "venerable  minister  and  a  worthy  gen 
tleman,"  as  the  village  paper  expressed  it  in  announcing  his 
death.  After  eulogizing  the  character  and  service  of  Mr.  Wof- 
ford, this  paper  further  says :  "His  last  will  and  testament  will 
prove  a  sufficient  memorial  to  his  affection  and  devotion  to  the 
Church  of  which  he  was  a  member.  .  .  .  The  garnered 
fruits  of  a  long  and  busy  life  he  has  thus  nobly  devoted  to  re- 
ligion and  science,  that  the  present  generation  and  those  that 
follow  may  reap  the  substantial  advantages  of  his  large  bounty." 


486 


History  of  Methodism. 


This  "last  will  and  testament"  bequeathed  8100,000—350,000 
for  buildings  and  850,000  for  endowment — "for  the  purpose 
of  establishing  and  endowing  a  college  for  literary,  classical, 
and  scientific  education,  to  be  located  in  my  naave  district, 
Spartanburg,  and  to  be  under  the  control  and  management  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  my  native  State,  South 
Carolina."    (From  Mr.  Wofford's  will.) 

This  gift  of  a  local  Methodist  preacher  is  notable  not  only 
for  the  wisdom  of  its  provisions,  but  also  for  the  extraordinary 
amount  of  it — §100,000  in  1850  to  religious  education!  Up  to 
that  time  it  was  perhaps  the  largest  single  gift  ever  made  to 
education  in  the  South,  and  indeed  very  few  since  have  been 
as  large.  With  it  Wofford  College  began  its  history.  It  was 
chartered  by  the  legislature  on  December  1G,  1851,  and  on  Au- 
gust 1,  1S54,  opened  its  doors  with  a  President  and  two  profes- 
sors, a  freshman  and  sophomore  class  of  nine  students,  a  "course 
of  study  as  full  and  as  extensive  as  that  of  the  best  American 
colleges,"  with  instructions  to  the  President  "to  travel  as  ex- 
tensively as  his  other  duties  will  permit  and  bring  up  the  endow- 
ment of  the  college  to  8120,000."  This  first  President  was  Rev. 
W.  M.  Wightman,  D.D.,  afterwards  Bishop  Wightman;  and 
one  of  the  two  professors  was  David  Duncan,  A.M.,  father  of 
Dr.  James  A.  Duncan,  of  Virginia,  and  Bishop  W.  W.  Duncan  ; 
and  the  other  professor  was  James  II.  Carlisle,  A.M.  In  1S55 
Warren  Du  Pre,  A.M.,  and  Rev.  Whitefoord  Smith,  D.D.,  were 
added  to  the  faculty.  With  this  extraordinary  group  of  able 
men  and  exceptionally  well-appointed  scholars,  Wofford  start- 
ed on  its  career. 

On  July  12,  1850,  Dr.  Wightman  resigned  the  presidency, 
and  Dr.  A.  M.  Shipp  was  selected  as  his  successor.  It  was  Dr. 
Shipp's  task  to  cany  the  college  through  the  storm  of  war  and 
well  into  the  distress  and  poverty  of  the  post-bellum  and  Re- 
construction days.  By  18G4  the  endowment  was  officially  re- 
ported to  be  over  $200,000.  It  was  called  in  the  report  "a  com- 
fortable endowment."  But  the  war  drew  away  to  the  service  of 
the  Confederacy  all  but  a  small  handful  of  students  and,  with 
the  exception  of  a  meager  few  thousand  dollars,  swept  the  en- 
dowment into  the  universal  wreck  of  the  time.  Then  followed 
the  confusion  and  dire  straits  of  Reconstruction.   Nothing  but 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


487 


the  courage  and  sacrifice  and  faith  of  Dr.  Shipp  and  his  col- 
leagues saved  the  college  to  the  Church.  As  best  it  could,  in 
a  seemingly  small  way  from  the  standpoint  of  to-day,  and  yet 
in  a  large  way  when  the  circumstances  of  those  days  are  con- 
sidered, the  South  Carolina  Conference  responded  to  appeals 
in  behalf  of  the  college  and  kept  it  alive,  holding  steadily  to 
noble  traditions  of  scholarship  and  character. 

Dr.  Shipp  was  called  to  Vanderbilt  in  1875  and  was  suc- 
ceeded in  the  presidency  by  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle.  As  no  other 
man  in  the  history  of  education  in  South  Carolina  or  in  the 
whole  South,  Dr.  Carlisle  put  the  stamp  of  his  great  person- 
ality upon  the  educational  life  of  the  State  and  gave  Wofford 
College  a  position  of  large  influence  and  outstanding  leader- 
ship. His  very  name  had  the  virtue  of  drawing  students,  and 
for  the  twenty-seven  years  of  his  administration  there  was 
steady  growth  in  its  patronage.  He  was  greatly  assisted  by  a 
group  of  exceptionally  able  financial  agents — W.  W.  Duncan 
(Bishop  Duncan),  A.  Coke  Smith  (Bishop  Smith),  John  C. 
Kilgo  (Bishop  Kilgo),  and  C.  B.  Smith.  The  results  of  their 
labors  were  that  by  1902  the  patronage  of  the  college  was  in- 
creased from  less  than  100  students  to  256,  the  Conference  as- 
sessments were  also  increased,  approximately  $G0,000  was 
added  to  the  endowment,  and  a  f 75,000  fitting  school  plant  was 
donated  to  the  college  by  the  citizens  of  Bamberg,  S.  C. 

After  forty-eight  years  of  service  as  Professor  and  President, 
Dr.  Carlisle  resigned  in  1902.  He  was  succeeded  by  Henry 
Nelson  Snyder,  who  had  been  for  ten  years  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish. During  the  fourteen  years  of  his  administration,  1902-16, 
and  the  five  years  of  the  efficient  agency  of  Dr.  R.  A.  Childs, 
1907-12,  the  patronage  has  grown,  new  buildings  have  been 
erected,  the  endowment  increased,  and  the  facilities  and  equip- 
ment of  the  institution  greatly  enlarged.  In  1916  the  value  of 
the  property  of  Wofford  College,  including  its  two  fitting 
school  plants,  the  one  at  Bamberg,  S.  C,  and  the  other  at 
Spartanburg,  was  estimated  at  |600,000,  its  endowment  and 
loan  funds  at  $200,000,  its  income  for  educational  purposes  at 
$45,000,  and  there  were  560  students  and  twenty-five  instruc- 
tors in  the  group  of  three  institutions  constituting  the  Wofford 
system. 


488 


History  oj  Methodism. 


Millsaps  College. 
The  history  of  Millsaps  College  does  not  begin  with  its  loca- 
tion in  Jackson,  Miss.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
previous  to  that  time  thoughtful  men  in  both  the  ministry  and 
the  laity  of  the  Church  in  Mississippi  had  been  impressed  with 
the  necessity  of  providing  on  a  larger  scale  for  the  higher  edu- 
cation of  Methodist  young  men.  Centenary  College,  located  in 
Jackson,  La.,  had  done  a  great  work  in  this  field  before  the 
War  between  the  States.  Xot  a  few  of  the  leading  men  in  the 
public  life  of  the  Southwest  had  been  educated  there.  But  the 
loss  of  its  endowment,  by  reason  of  the  war  and  subsequent 
business  depression,  gave  little  promise  of  better  things  in  the 
future. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  feeling  in  favor  of  a  college 
owned  and  controlled  by  the  Mississippi  Conferences  took  form 
in  an  organized  movement.  The  matter  was  formally  pre- 
sented to  the  Mississippi  Conference  at  its  session  held  in 
Vicksburg,  December  7,  1888,  and  to  the  North  Mississippi 
Conference  which  was  held  in  Starkville  December  12  of  the 
same  year,  and  favorably  acted  upon.  A  joint  commission  of 
the  two  Conferences  was  appointed  to  formulate  plans  and  to 
receive  donations  of  lands,  buildings,  and  money  for  the  pur- 
poses contemplated.  This  commission  met  in  Jackson  in  Jan- 
uary, 1889,  at  which  time  Major  Millsaps,  a  member  of  the  com- 
mission, proposed  to  give  850,000,  provided  the  Methodists  of 
Mississippi  would  give  an  equal  amount.  Bishop  Charles  B. 
Galloway  was  requested  to  conduct  a  campaign  in  the  interest 
of  an  endowment  fund.  This  canvass,  on  account  of  the  pres- 
sure of  official  duties,  could  not  be  continuously  carried  on, 
but  even  this  partially  prosecuted  canvass  resulted  in  the  most 
encouraging  success.  In  December,  1880,  Rev.  A.  F.  Watkins, 
D.D.,  was  appointed  to  continue  the  work,  and  on  December 
30,  1893,  a  report  was  made  that  the  full  amount  had  beon 
raised  to  meet  the  terms  of  Major  Millsaps's  proposition. 

The  Conference  having  provided  for  a  Board  of  Trustees, 
the  joint  commission  dissolved  in  January,  1^00.  Tn  Febru- 
ary the  college  was  incorporated  by  act  of  the  Mississippi  Leg- 
islature. After  the  Board  had  organized  trader  the  charter,  the 
question  of  locating  the  college  was  considered  with  great 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


489 


care.  Finally,  on  May  20,  1891,  Jackson,  the  capital  of  the 
State,  was  selected.  The  citizens  of  Jackson  contributed  $21, 
000  for  grounds  and  buildings,  and  to  this  sum  Major  Mill 
saps  added  $ 15,000.  Plans  for  a  commodious  main  building 
were  immediately  procured,  grounds  were  purchased,  and  in  a 
comparatively  short  time  buildings  were  in  process  of  erection. 

At  a  meeting  held  in  Jackson  April  28,  1892,  Rev.  W.  B. 
Murrah  was  elected  President,  and  the  college  was  opened  on 
September  29,  1892.  The  unusual  facilities  for  conducting  a 
Law  School  in  Jackson  led  to  the  establishment,  in  189G,  of  a 
School  of  Law.  Hon.  Edward  Mayes,  ex-Chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Mississippi  and  for  more  than  fourteen  years  a  pro- 
fessor of  law  in  that  institution,  took  active  control  of  the 
new  school  and  is  still  its  head.  In  1911  the  preparatory 
school  was  formally  separated  from  the  college.  It  is  now  a 
distinct  institution,  with  the  official  title  of  the  Millsaps  Pre- 
paratory School. 

The  facilities  of  the  college  were  further  enlarged  in  1895 
and  189G  by  the  generosity  of  Major  Millsaps,  who  gave  Web- 
ster Science  Hall,  which  cost  more  than  |1 0,000.  In  1901  Mr. 
Dan  A.  James,  of  Yazoo  City,  built  an  observatory  for  the  col- 
lege in  memory  of  his  father,  Mr.  Peter  James,  and  of  his 
brother,  Mr.  Samuel  James,  and  furnished  it  with  a  fine  tele- 
scope. In  1902,  to  supply  the  increasing  demand  for  better 
dormitory  and  dining  hall  facilities,  Major  Millsaps  gave  the 
college  the  property  formerly  known  as  Jackson  College,  cost- 
ing more  than  $30,000,  and  fifty  acres  of  land  immediately  ad 
joining  the  campus,  valued  at  f 50,000. 

In  1906  the  General  Education  Board  offered  to  donate, 
from  the  funds  provided  by  John  1).  Rockefeller  for  higher 
education,  $25,000,  provided  an  additional  sum  of  $75,000 
should  be  collected  from  other  sources,  for  the  permanent  en- 
dowment of  the  college.  Rev.  T.  W.  Lewis,  D.D.,  of  the  North 
Mississippi  Conference,  was  made  financial  agent  of  the  col- 
lege and  collected  this  sum.  At  the  commencement  of  1913 
Major  Millsaps  gave  to  the  college  property  on  Capitol  Street, 
Jackson,  valued  at  $150,000.  After  his  death  the  college  came 
into  possession  of  two  life  insurance  policies  for  $50,000  each. 

A  disastrous  fire  destroyed  the  main  building  in  1914;  but 


490 


History  of  Methodism. 


within  a  few  months  the  old  structure  had  been  replaced  by  a 
far  more  commodious  and  imposing  administration  building, 
costing  $G0,000.  The  value  of  the  productive  endowment  of  the 
college  is  $526,393;  buildings  and  grounds,  $219,500;  library, 
$12,000;  chemical,  physical,  and  biological  apparatus,  $8,000; 
furniture  and  fixtures,  $4,000;  unproductive  endowment,  $43,- 
000;  total,  $812,893. 

The  election  of  Dr.  Murrah  to  the  episcopacy  in  1910  left 
the  institution  without  a  President.  The  vacancy  thus  caused 
was  filled  by  the  election  of  Rev.  D.  C.  Hull,  who  discharged 
the  duties  of  the  office  with  distinguished  ability  two  years,  re- 
signing in  the  summer  of  1912,  when  Rev.  A.  F.  Watkins,  D.D., 
of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  was  elected  President.  His  in- 
cumbency is  a  guarantee  of  the  institution's  continued  success. 

Since  1912  Millsaps  College  has  been  a  member  of  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools,  a  distinction  en- 
joyed by  only  one  other  institution  in  the  State.  An  impartial 
committee  of  the  Association  made  exhaustive  inquiry  into  the 
financial  resources  of  the  institution,  its  courses,  the  training 
of  its  instructors,  the  character  of  its  work,  and  unanimously 
recommended  it  for  membership. 

Southwestern  University. 

The  history  of  Southwestern  University,  at  Georgetown,  Tex., 
is  the  history  of  Methodist  education  in  the  Lone  Star  State 
up  to  the  founding  of  the  Southern  Methodist  University,  at 
Dallas.  With  the  entrance  of  the  missionaries  into  the  Repub- 
lic of  Texas  before  the  "forties,"  plans  for  primary  and  collegi- 
ate education  began  to  be  laid.  Rutersville  College,  McKenzie 
College,  Wesleyan  College,  and  Soule  University  were  the  names 
of  foundations  that  marked  the  stages  of  the  progress  of  this 
movement.  When  the  time  came  for  an  inter-Conference  co- 
operation in  education,  the  chartered  rights  of  these  several  in- 
stitutions were,  by  the  action  of  the  Annual  Conferences  and 
the  special  authorization  of  the  State  legislature,  merged  into 
a  new  corporation  to  be  known  as  Southwestern  University. 
Rutersville  College,  located  at  the  frontier  town  of  Rutersville, 
came  into  existence  in  1840  through  an  act  of  the  Congress  of 
the  Republic  of  Texas.    It  was  the  initial  educational  effort  of 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


491 


the  Methodists  in  that  republic.  It  received  its  original  in- 
spiration from  the  advocacy  of  Rev.  Martin  Ruter,  D.D.,  an 
early  missionary  to  the  State,  who  had  been  associated  in  his 
younger  life  with  Bishop  Soule.  The  first  President  of  Ruters- 
ville  College  was  Rev.  Chauncey  Richardson,  A.M.,  a  man  of 
ability  both  as  minister  and  teacher.  His  successor  was  Wil- 
liam Halsey,  A.M.,  who  in  turn  was  followed  by  the  Rev.  H. 
S.  Thrall,  D.D.  Rutersville  College  existed  as  a  Methodist 
school  for  about  ten  years. 

McKenzie  College,  located  at  Clarksville,  in  the  State  of 
Texas,  was  chiefly  the  result  of  the  initiative  and  labors  of  the 
Rev.  J.  W.  P.  McKenzie,  D.D.,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
connected  with  the  early  evangelization  and  educational  history 
of  the  Southwest.  This  school  had  a  noteworthy  record  of 
prosperity,  matriculating  an  average  of  more  than  three  hun- 
dred pupils  each  session.  Many  of  the  religious  and  political 
leaders  of  Texas  half  a  century  ago  were  graduates  of  its 
classes.  During  a  history  of  thirty  years  Dr.  McKenzie  was  its 
only  President. 

The  school  known  as  Wesleyan  College  was  located  at  San 
Augustine  and  was  chartered  by  the  Congress  of  Texas  in  1844. 
Rev.  Lester  Janes,  A.M.,  was  its  President.  The  buildings  were 
destroyed  by  fire  a  few  years  after  the  opening  of  the  school. 

What  was  expected  to  be  the  great  central  institution  of 
Methodism  in  the  new  State  of  Texas  was  Soule  University, 
located  at  Chapel  Hill  and  chartered  by  the  State  in  1856.  Its 
Presidents  in  succession  were:  William  Halsey,  A.M.,  O.  H. 
McCumber,  A.M.,  Rev.  G.  W.  Carter,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  F.  A.  Mood, 
D.D.  The  prosperity  of  this  institution  was  interrupted  by  the 
War  between  the  States,  and  it  never  afterwards  regained  its 
lost  prestige.  It  was  the  only  Methodist  institution  in  Texas 
devoted  to  higher  education  at  the  time  of  the  founding  of 
Southwestern  University;  and  as  soon  as  this  university  was 
opened  for  students,  Soule  University  ceased  to  be  operated. 

Southwestern  University  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  movement  be- 
gun in  18G9  under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  Francis  Asbury  Mood, 
D.D.  In  that  year  each  of  the  five  Texas  Conferences  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  adopted  the  following: 


41)2 


History  of  Methodism. 


Whereas  it  is  of  vital  importance  to  Southern  Methodism,  as  well  as 
to  the  general  interests  of  religion  and  education  in  Texas,  that  there 
be  an  institution  of  learning  that  will  by  its  endowments  cheapen 
higher  education  and  by  its  other  advantages  secure  general  confidence 
and  patronage;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  1.  That  an  educational  convention  of  the  several  Annual 
Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  of  Texas,  shall 
be  called  to  meet  in  Galveston  April  20,  1870,  consisting  of  the  delegates 
elect,  lay  and  clerical,  to  the  ensuing  General  Conference. 

2.  That  to  this  convention  thus  constituted  be  committed  the  duty  of 
arranging  for  the  organization,  location,  and  endowment  of  a  university 
for  the  Southwest,  to  be  under  the  patronage  and  control  of  the  Con- 
ferences of  the  State  and  such  other  Conferences  as  may  hereafter  desire 
to  cooperate  with  them. 

The  Educational  Convention  thus  authorized  met  at  the  ap- 
pointed time  and  took  the  preliminary  steps  necessary  for  the 
organization  and  location  of  the  proposed  university;  but  it  was 
not  until  1873  that  the  location  was  decided  upon.  George- 
town, having  offered  buildings  and  lands  worth  about  $63,000, 
was  in  that  year  selected  over  numerous  competitors.  Rev. 
Francis  Asbury  Mood,  D.D.,  who  had  been  elected  Regent, 
opened  the  first  session  October,  1873.  This  position  he  held  for 
eleven  years.  He  may  justly  be  entitled  "the  founder  of  South- 
western University."  The  institution  advanced  under  his  ad- 
ministration from  thirty-three  students  to  more  than  three  hun- 
dred, the  faculty  being  enlarged  from  three  professors  to  fifteen 
professors  and  teachers.  On  November  12,  1881,  after  having 
delivered  an  earnest  address  on  "Christian  Education"  before 
the  Northwest  Texas  Conference,  in  session  at  Waco,  he  was 
suddenly  taken  ill  and  passed  from  labor  to  rest.  His  body 
was  brought  to  Georgetown  and  buried  on  the  university 
grounds.  A  handsome  granite  monument  marks  his  resting 
place,  but  he  has  left  a  more  enduring  monument  in  the  pros- 
perous university  founded  and  fostered  by  him. 

To  June,  1885,  his  successor,  Rev.  J.  W.  Heidt,  D.D.,  of  Geor- 
gia, was  elected  Regent.  Under  Dr.  Heidt's  administration  the 
university  continued  to  prosper.  A  generous  donation  was  v,. 
cured  from  Mrs.  A.  M.  Giddings,  of  Brenham,  which  enabled 
the  trustees  to  project  Giddings  Hall  and  to  secure  money  for 
the  several  Annual  Conferences  to  erect  cottages  on  the  cam- 
pus as  a  part  of  the  Giddings  Hall  system.    The  Woman's 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


Building  was  erected,  furnished,  and  opened.  In  addition  to 
material  improvements,  there  was  an  increase  of  patronage 
under  his  administration. 

In  the  fall  of  1889  Dr.  Heidt  resigned  his  position  as  Regent 
and  returned  to  Georgia  to  engage  in  pastoral  work.  This  ac- 
tion caused  the  duties  of  the  regency  to  devolve  upon  the  Vice 
Regent,  Rev.  John  H.  McLean,  D.D.,  until  the  regular  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Curators,  in  June,  1891.  At  this  meeting  Dr. 
McLean  was  elected  Regent.  For  six  years  he  guided  the  affairs 
of  the  university  with  marked  success,  witnessing  a  steady  in- 
crease of  patronage  and  a  correspondingly  enlarged  faculty. 
Dr.  McLean's  name  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  institution,  which  he  faithfully  served  as  Curator,  Finan- 
cial Agent,  Professor,  Vice  Regent,  and  Regent.  In  June,  1897, 
he  resigned  and  resumed  pastoral  work  in  the  North  Texas  Con- 
ference. 

As  the  Board  of  Curators  failed  to  elect  a  successor  to  Dr. 
McLean,  the  duties  of  Regent  for  the  session  of  1897-98  devolved 
upon  the  Chairman  of  the  Faculty,  Rev.  J.  R.  Allen,  A.B.,  D.D. 

In  1898  Robert  S.  Hyer,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  was  elected  President. 
His  administration  marked  great  advancement  along  all  lines. 

Upon  the  resignation  of  President  Hyer,  in  June,  1911,  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  then  in  session,  elected  Rev.  Charles  Mc- 
Tyeire  Bishop,  A.M.,  D.D.,  President,  who  was  formally  in- 
augurated in  December  of  that  year,  and  under  whose  admin- 
istration the  institution  has  maintained  its  former  high  stand- 
ard and  continued  its  record  for  excellent  work. 

The  value  of  the  campus,  buildings,  and  equipments  of  South- 
western University  is  conservatively  estimated  at  $600,000. 
The  endowment,  including  loan  funds,  subscriptions,  and 
amounts  invested  in  buildings,  is  $300,000,  plus  the  value  of 
property.  During  the  last  five  years  the  average  annual  at- 
tendance of  strictly  college  students  has  been  above  450.  The 
university  is  completing  a  science  building  at  a  cost  of  $50,000. 
The  outlook  for  the  institution  is  very  bright. 

Central  College. 

Central  College,  located  in  Fayette,  Mo.,  is  the  joint  property 
of  the  three  Missouri  Conferences  for  the  higher  education  of 


494 


History  of  Methodism. 


young  men  and  women.  It  was  enterprised  in  1854,  chartered 
in  1855,  and  opened  in  1857.  It  was  in  active  operation  four 
years  preceding  the  War  between  the  States,  during  which 
time  it  had  six  graduates.  Then  its  doors  were  closed,  and 
the  building  suffered  the  ravages  of  war,  being  used  as  bar- 
racks and  hospital.  Since  the  reopening,  in  1871,  the  college 
has  grown  steadily  along  all  lines  and  stands  to-day  among 
the  foremost  institutions  of  the  West  and  South. 

Fifteen  men  have  served  in  the  presidency,  with  terms  ranging 
from  one  to  eight  years — viz. :  Rev.  Nathan  Scarritt,  Rev.  Carr 
W.  Pritchett,  Rev.  A.  A.  Morrison,  and  Rev.  W.  H.  Anderson, 
ante-bellum;  Rev.  William  A.  Smith,  Rev.  John  C.  Wills,  Rev. 
E.  R.  Hendrix,  Prof.  O.  P.  H.  Corprew,  Rev.  John  D.  Ham- 
mond, Hon.  Tyson  S.  Dines,  Prof.  E.  B.  Craighead,  Prof.  T. 
Berry  Smith,  Rev.  J.  C.  Morris,  Prof.  William  A.  Webb,  and 
Rev.  Paul  H.  Linn,  post-bellum. 

There  have  been  more  than  sixty  teachers  and  professors, 
four  hundred  graduates,  and  nearly  four  thousand  students, 
whose  average  attendance  has  been  about  two  years. 

The  original  campus  of  less  than  one  acre  has  grown  to 
thirty-five  and  is  now  probably  the  most  charming  campus  in 
the  State.  The  one  building  (now  Brannock  Hall)  that  served 
all  purposes  until  188G  has  at  present  the  company  of  four  oth- 
er commodious  structures,  including  Centenary  Chapel  (1884), 
Science  Hall  (1894),  Cupples  Hall  (1899),  and  the  Gymnasium 
(1906). 

A  library  of  twelve  thousand  standard  volumes,  an  exten- 
sive museum,  well-equipped  chemical,  physical,  and  biological 
laboratories,  and  other  facilities  place  the  college  in  the  fore- 
front of  Church  institutions.  The  total  value  of  the  plant  is 
estimated  at  1300,000. 

The  endowment  fund  was  $110,000  in  1886,  grew  to  $217,- 
000  by  1913,  and,  owing  to  the  pledges  of  about  six  thousand 
subscribers  secured  in  1914-15,  to  be  paid  in  five  equal  annual 
installments,  will  be  a  half  million  or  more  by  1919. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  output  of  Central  College  cannot 
be  estimated,  and  its  place  in  the  educational  work  of  South- 
ern Methodism  is  secure. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


495 


Hendrix  College. 

In  1883  the  Arkansas  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  realizing  the  importance  and  necessity  of  an 
institution  of  college  grade,  authorized  its  Centenary  Commit- 
tee to  establish  a  college.  The  committee  met  at  Altus  on  June 
10,  1884,  and  purchased,  subject  to  Conference  ratification,  the 
Central  Collegiate  Institute,  from  its  owner,  Rev.  I.  L.  Bur- 
row. This  action  was  ratified  at  the  ensuing  session  of  the 
Conference.  During  the  same  year  the  Little  Rock  Conference 
became  a  joint  owner,  and  in  1886  the  White  River  Conference 
entered  the  alliance.  In  this  way  the  interest  and  strength  of 
the  entire  Church  in  Arkansas  were  concentrated  upon  one  in- 
stitution, with  the  purpose  of  making  it  a  real  college.  In 
1889  the  name  was  changed  to  Hendrix  College,  in  honor  of 
Bishop  Hendrix. 

In  the  fall  of  1889  the  question  of  relocation  was  considered 
by  the  three  Conferences,  and  by  concurrent  resolutions  the 
whole  matter  was  referred  to  the  college  trustees  for  final 
settlement.  January  1,  1890,  the  trustees,  after  careful  investi- 
gation of  all  the  circumstances,  decided  to  receive  propositions 
from  towns  desiring  the  college.  March  19,  1890,  the  trustees 
received  and  considered  propositions  from  seven  towns,  and, 
in  consideration  of  centrality,  a  bonus  of  |55,000,  and  other 
advantages,  located  the  college  at  Conway. 

The  college  is  owned  by  the  North  Arkansas  and  Little  Rock 
Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and 
is  controlled  through  a  Board  of  Trustees  representing  these 
Conferences. 

The  original  charter,  conforming  to  the  requirements  of 
State  law,  provided  for  a  self-perpetuating  Board  of  Trustees, 
though  the  nominations  were  always  submitted  to  the  Confer- 
ences for  ratification.  No  difference  in  judgments  ever  occurred 
between  the  trustees  and  the  Conferences.  To  conform  to  the 
requirements  of  the  legislation  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1910,  the  trustees  secured  the  passage  of  a  new  law  governing 
the  incorporation  of  educational  institutions  in  Arkansas,  and 
thereupon  had  the  charter  amended  so  as  to  provide  that  the 
trustees  should  be  nominated  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  and 
elected  by  the  two  Annual  Conferences.   The  Conferences  may 


490 


History  of  Methodism. 


reject  nominations  and  proceed  to  elect  new  trustees  upon  their 
own  nomination.  There  are  twenty-one  trustees,  three  being 
nominated  by  the  Alumni  Association. 

Heudrix  College  has  had  four  Presidents :  Rev.  I.  L.  Burrow, 
1884-87;  Dr.  A.  C.  Millar,  1887-1902,  1910-13;  Dr.  Stonewall 
Anderson,  1902-10;  Dr.  J.  H.  Reynolds,  1913-1G. 

Hendrix  College  buildings  and  grounds  are  valued  at  $150,- 
000,  and  the  productive  endowment  is  $285,000.  The  college 
confers  two  degrees,  B.A.  and  B.S.  It  does  no  graduate  work. 
Its  Bachelor's  degree  is  accepted  at  the  best  graduate  univer- 
sities as  equivalent  to  their  own  Bachelor's  degree,  and  Hen- 
drix graduates  are  admitted  to  graduate  work  without  condi- 
tion. 

The  college  is  now  in  a  campaign  for  $400,000  for  buildings 
and  additional  endowment.  The  General  Education  Board  of 
New  York  offers  to  give  $100,000  of  this  sum. 

Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College. 

Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College,  which  was  opened  for 
students  in  the  fall  of  1893,  is  the  foremost  woman's  college  of 
the  Connection.  It  owes  its  existence  to  the  faith,  discriminat- 
ing judgment,  and  heroic  efforts  of  Dr.  W.  W.  Smith,  who  was 
assisted  in  his  task  by  a  group  of  far-sighted  and  generous 
citizens  of  Lynchburg,  Va.  Receiving  overtures  from  certain 
business  men  of  Lynchburg,  Dr.  Smith  entered  into  negotia- 
tions looking  to  the  establishment  of  a  woman's  college  in  the 
beautiful  new  addition  of  Rivermont,  then  but  recently  opened 
in  the  suburbs  of  that  city.  He  was  offered  a  site  for  the  college 
and  $100,000  for  building  purposes  on  condition  that  he  raise 
another  $100,000  for  endowment.  Within  thirty-four  days  he 
secured  $100,000  of  subscriptions  on  the  endowment  fund,  and 
thus  obtained  within  a  little  more  than  three  months  after 
Hie  movement  was  launched  property,  subscriptions,  and  cash 
valued  at  $220,000.  These  contributions  came  from  all  classes 
of  citizens  and  represented  all  religious  denominations,  though 
the  Methodists  were  the  most  generous  givers.  Seventy  thou- 
sand dollars  was  expended  in  a  building,  and  the  rest  was  set 
aside  for  an  endowment.  By  a  fortunate  investment  in  Vir- 
ginia State  bonds  the  endowment  funds  were  still  further  in- 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


497 


creased  by  $30,000  when  the  General  Assembly,  by  special  en- 
actment, exempted  these  bonds  from  scaling,  this  amount  off- 
setting a  considerable  shrinkage  in  the  original  subscription 
list. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  new  institution  demanding  more  and 
more  of  his  time,  Dr.  Smith  gave  up  his  official  position  at 
Ashland  and  became  President  of  the  Woman's  College  and 
Chancellor  of  the  Randolph-Macon  System.  Although  the  two 
colleges  are  bound  together  by  ties  of  heartiest  sympathy  and 
friendliest  cooperation  and  are  both  governed  by  a  single  Board 
of  Trustees  operating  under  a  single  charter,  each  administers 
its  own  finances,  regulates  its  own  methods  of  government, 
makes  out  its  own  courses  of  instruction,  and  determines  its 
own  requirements  for  admission  and  graduation.  With  the 
death  of  Dr.  Smith,  the  office  of  Chancellor  was  discontinued. 

The  growth  of  the  Woman's  College  was  phenomenal  from  the 
beginning.  Before  the  first  class  was  graduated  in  1897  it  was 
necessary  to  expend  $16,000  in  order  to  meet  the  demands  for 
additional  room,  more  than  half  of  the  amount  being  provided 
by  the  faculty  and  the  members  of  the  Board.  Two  years  later 
|22,000  was  spent  in  increasing  the  facilities  for  the  accom- 
modation of  boarders,  for  enlarging  and  enriching  the  labora- 
tories— chemical,  physical,  biological,  and  psychological — and 
the  library.  From  1896  until  1910,  when  the  custom  of  print- 
ing such  a  list  was  discontinued,  the  college  was  listed  in  Class 
A  among  the  women's  colleges  by  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation of  the  United  States  government.  In  1903  East  Hall 
was  added  at  a  cost  of  f 40,000. 

The  years  1906  and  1907  were  periods  of  great  activity  upon 
the  campus.  West  Hall  was  completed  at  a  cost  of  $42,000, 
and  Science  Hall,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  was  erected 
at  a  cost  of  $20,000.  This  gift  was  conditioned  upon  the  rais 
ing  of  a  like  sum  for  the  endowment  fund,  which  was  secured 
in  sixty  days,  the  faculty  again  contributing  $3,000.  During 
this  year  the  chapel  was  enlarged  to  double  its  capacity,  a  cen- 
tral heating  plant  and  a  laundry  were  added  to  the  equipment, 
the  Schehlmann  memorial  organ  was  installed  in  the  chapel, 
the  Winfree  Observatory  was  built,  and  Mrs.  George  Jones 
contributed  $15,000  toward  the  library  fund.  During  this 
32 


498 


History  of  Methodism. 


period  of  material  growth  and  expansion  entrance  requirements 
had  been  steadily  advanced,  and  high  standards  of  scholarship 
had  been  rigidly  enforced.  In  1907-08  the  enrollment  reached 
390,  representing  thirty-two  States  and  foreign  countries,  and 
the  graduating  class  numbered  thirty.  Eight  members  of  the 
faculty  held  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  and  five  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  New  Hall,  a  companion  building  to 
East  and  West,  was  erected  in  1909.  In  the  same  year  the 
Gymnasium  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $20,000. 

In  1900  the  entrance  requirements  in  English  were  the  same 
as  those  prescribed  by  the  Northern  and  Middle  States  Associa- 
tions of  Colleges  and  Schools,  and  the  requirements  in  Latin 
included  four  books  of  Caesar,  four  orations  of  Cicero,  and 
three  books  of  Vergil ;  the  increase  to  six  orations  of  Cicero 
and  six  books  of  Vergil  was  made  three  years  later.  In  1902 
the  college  was  admitted  to  the  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Preparatory  Schools  of  the  Southern  States  and  has  had  an 
active  part  in  the  work  of  that  organization  in  advancing 
scholarly  standards  both  in  preparatory  schools  and  in  col- 
leges in  the  South.  From  1907  to  1911  14.5  Carnegie  units 
were  required  of  all  students  for  unconditioned  admission  to 
the  freshman  class  and  10.5  units  for  conditional  admis- 
sion and  for  all  special  and  irregular  students.  In  1911  these 
were  increased  to  fifteen  and  thirteen  units,  respectively.  Dr. 
Smith's  last  great  service  for  the  college  was  securing  a  condi- 
tional gift  of  $75,000  from  the  General  Education  Board  and 
the  raising  of  an  additional  8175.000  to  meet  the  conditions. 
Before  his  death,  in  November,  1912,  he  had  secured  the  entire 
amount,  largely  from  the  citizens  of  Lynchburg,  and  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  1915,  the  General  Education  Board  paid  its  last  check, 
completing  the  addition  of  8250,000  to  the  endowment  fund  of 
the  college. 

On  March  1,  191G,  a  conservative  estimate  placed  the  hold- 
ings of  the  Woman's  College,  in  Lynchburg,  at  8871,125.  of 
which  (382,730  is  invested  as  a  permanent  endowment  fund 
($120,000  being  represented  in  three  dormitories).  The  four 
laboratories — chemical,  biological,  physical,  and  psychological 
— expend  annually  about  (5,000  for  the  purchase  of  new  ma- 
terial.   The  library  now  consists  of  fifteen  thousand  volumes, 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


499 


catalogued  and  classified  according  to  the  Dewey  system,  and, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  all  the  books  have  been  selected  with 
the  greatest  care  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  several  de- 
partments of  college  instruction.  About  $2,000  annually  is 
expended  in  the  purchase  of  new  books.  At  this  date  there  are 
024  students  enrolled,  representing  thirty-five  States  and  for- 
eign countries,  and  the  graduating  class  this  year  numbers 
100.  The  teaching  force  consists  of  forty-eight  instructors; 
fourteen  of  these  hold  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  from 
such  institutions  as  Johns  Hopkins  University  (5),  Harvard 
University  (2),  Yale  University  (2),  the  University  of  Berlin, 
the  University  of  Leipsic,  Boston  University,  Syracuse  Univer- 
sity, and  Columbia  University;  and  nine,  not  included  in  the 
above,  hold  the  Master's  degree  from  such  institutions  as  Ran- 
dolph-Macon Woman's  College,  the  University  of  Chicago,  Trin- 
ity College,  George  Washington  University,  and  the  University 
of  Wisconsin.  All  other  instructors  in  the  Academic  Depart- 
ment save  one  hold  the  Bachelor's  degree. 

Of  the  634  graduates  of  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College, 
a  goodly  number  have  continued  their  studies  in  the  great  uni- 
versities, and  many  of  them  are  now  holding  positions  of  trust 
and  responsibility  in  colleges,  academies,  high  schools,  mis- 
sion schools,  and  hospitals,  and  a  few  have  risen  to  distinction 
in  the  field  of  social  activities.  They  have  uniformly  received 
recognition  for  their  work  in  the  Woman's  College  and  have 
obtained  the  highest  advanced  degrees  from  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, University  of  Chicago,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Vander- 
bilt  University,  and  the  Medical  Department  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  Dr.  William  Webb  is  President  of  the  Woman's 
College. 

Wesleyan  Female  College. 

In  the  year  1833  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce  and  other  distinguished 
members  of  the  Methodist  ministry  determined  to  establish  for 
the  education  of  women  an  institution  where  they  would  obtain 
equal  advantages  and  be  given  the  same  degrees  that  the  men 
were  receiving  in  the  best  institutions  of  the  South.  Their  pro- 
posal met  with  great  opposition;  many  said  that  women  did 
not  need  to  be  scholars  in  any  sense  of  the  word  to  make  good 
cooks.    However,  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  brave  pioneers 


500 


History  of  Methodism. 


triumphed,  and  in  1830  the  Georgia  Female  College  was  char- 
tered by  the  legislature,  and  #25,000  was  granted  the  institu- 
tion from  the  treasury  of  the  State. 

The  buildings  were  begun  at  once,  and  the  college  opened 
iis  doors  first  in  January,  1839,  under  the  presidency  of  Dr. 
George  F.  Pierce,  afterwards  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  A  class  of  twelve  young  ladies  immediately  en- 
tered, coming  from  the  excellent  academies  of  the  South.  They 
were  graduated  in  the  summer  of  1840  with  the  regular  A.B. 
degree.  These  were  the  first  Bachelor's  degrees  that  were  ever 
conferred  upon  women. 

Dr.  Pierce  was  President  for  only  a  few  years,  and  then  for 
a  long  time  the  college  was  under  the  management  of  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Ellison,  D.D.,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  early 
Methodism.  The  institution  has  had  a  succession  of  illustrious 
presidents  and  professors  and  has  never  closed  its  doors  except 
for  three  months  during  the  War  between  the  States,  when  it 
was  used  as  a  hospital  by  the  Confederate  government. 

At  present  the  college  is  doing  four  years  of  high-class  col- 
lege work,  has  officers  and  teachers  to  the  number  of  forty- 
five,  a  student  body  of  more  than  four  hundred,  and  grounds, 
buildings,  equipment,  and  endowment  to  the  value  of  $050,000. 
It  is  one  of  the  two  schools  for  women  in  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist Church  ranked  by  the  Board  of  Education  on  equality 
with  the  best  schools  for  men.  The  income  from  endowment 
is  $9,000,  besides  the  Conference  assessment  of  $4,000  per  year. 

Key.  O.  B.  Jenkins,  D.D.,  is  President;  J.  C.  Hinton,  A.M., 
Dean  ;  and  J.  W.  W.  Daniel,  A.M.,  Secretary  of  the  Faculty. 

Woman's  College  of  Alabama. 

The  movement  for  the  establishment  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege of  Alabama  was  begun  in  1906,  when  a  joint  commission 
consisting  of  three  lay  and  three  clerical  members,  from  the 
Alabama  and  North  Alabama  Conferences,  was  appointed  for 
the  purpose  of  "erecting  and  equipping  the  Woman's  College 
and  putting  it  in  operation."  The  idea  was  a  "college  for 
women  with  a  curriculum  equal  to  that  of  the  very  best  col- 
leges for  men."  This  eommission  became  the  College  Board 
of  Trustees,  which  realized  the  expectations  and  plans  of 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


501 


the  promoters  of  the  movement  by  establishing  an  A-grade 
school  which  has  been  accepted  by  the  General  Board  of  Edu- 
cation of  the  Church.  The  standard  of  the  college  emphasizes 
the  distinction  between  preparatory  and  college  work  and 
aims  to  encourage  thorough  training  on  the  part  of  high 
schools,  seminaries,  and  junior  colleges  in  the  State  with  which 
it  seeks  to  establish  correlation.  Its  invested  funds  and  the 
annual  appropriation  from  the  two  Conferences  enable  it  to 
employ  a  faculty  of  men  and  women  of  thorough  training  and 
scholarship  who  have  already  won  reputation  by  practical 
work  in  the  classroom.  The  campus  and  grounds  of  the  col- 
lege consist  of  fifty-seven  acres  of  land  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
city  of  Montgomery.  The  endowment  and  appropriations  en- 
able the  college  to  reduce  its  charges  to  a  minimum  for  the 
superior  advantages  offered.  The  Woman's  College  is  proper- 
ly the  successor  of  the  old  Alabama  Female  College,  which 
passed  out  of  existence  in  1909.  It  had  had  fifty  years  of 
honorable  and  useful  history.  With  it  had  been  connected 
Dr.  John  Massey  and  his  wife,  who  for  thirty-three  years 
labored  with  untiring  zeal  to  make  this  older  institution  a 
power  in  Methodism.  Dr.  Massey  deserves  honorable  mention 
in  the  annals  of  Methodism.  He  was  one  of  a  group  of  edu- 
cators who  in  the  earlier  history  of  the  Church  in  the  South 
held  up  high  ideals  of  education  for  the  people  and  sought  to 
realize  them  in  the  work  done  in  the  classroom.  A  splendid 
library  building  is  to  be  erected  on  the  campus,  to  be  named 
in  his  honor.  Dr.  Massey  has  closed  his  active  labors  by  writ- 
ing a  volume  of  "Reminiscences,"  which  contains  the  memora- 
bilia of  a  useful  and  distinguished  life. 

The  President  of  this  great  new  institution  is  Prof.  Mifflin 
Wyatt  Swartz,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  who  has  entered  upon  his  work 
under  auspices  of  large  hopefulness  and  happy  prophecy. 

Columbia  College. 

Columbia  College,  for  the  higher  education  of  women,  was 
chartered  in  1854.  It  was  located  in  the  city  of  Columbia,  S. 
C,  on  Plain  Street,  between  Pickens  and  Henderson  Streets. 

On  account  of  the  poverty  and  depression  resulting  from  the 
War  between  the  States,  the  building  was  rented  for  a  hotel 


502 


History  of  Methodism. 


from  1SG5  to  1873.  The  college  was  then  reopened  and  has 
since  been  in  continuous  and  successful  operation. 

In  1887  the  building  was  enlarged  to  meet  the  growing  de- 
mands of  its  patronage.  In  1895  the  plant  was  overhauled,  en- 
larged, and  fitted  with  modern  heating  and  sanitary  equipment. 
At  this  time  a  great  forward  movement  was  inaugurated,  and 
the  requirements  for  entrance  and  graduation  were  made  to 
conform  to  those  of  the  leading  colleges  for  men.  This  college 
has  made  large  contributions  toward  awakening  a  deeper  in- 
terest in  higher  education,  and  it  has  been  rewarded  by  a 
steadily  increasing  patronage.  Its  prosperity,  surpassing  its 
capacity,  was  heeded  as  an  imperative  demand  for  larger  pro- 
vision to  meet  the  demands  of  its  patrons. 

In  1904  a  new  site  was  chosen  and  new  buildings  were  pro- 
jected. These  buildings  were  located  north  of  the  beautiful 
and  progressive  capital  city  of  South  Carolina,  with  which  they 
are  connected  by  an  electric  railway.  The  site  is  a  most  de- 
sirable one,  being  an  elevation  of  sixty-five  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  city  of  Columbia.  These  large,  convenient,  comfortable, 
superb  buildings  were  destroyed  by  fire  on  September  9,  1909, 
after  having  been  used  only  four  years.  The  origin  of  the  fire 
is  thought  to  have  been  an  electric  wire. 

The  "Colonia"  was  rented  for  the  session  of  1909-10,  the 
college  opened  at  the  time  appointed  (September  23, 1909),  and 
its  work  was  continued  without  interruption. 

Immediately  after  the  fire,  steps  were  taken  for  rebuilding. 
The  new  buildings  were  ready  for  the  opening,  September  29, 
1910,  and  are  an  improvement  upon  even  the  magnificent  struc- 
tures which  preceded  them.  They  form  one  of  the  most  substan- 
tial, convenient,  comfortable,  and  imposing  colleges  for  women 
to  be  found  in  the  South.  The  construction  throughout  has 
been  fireproof.  The  buildings  have  been  divided  into  sections 
by  fire  walls,  with  automatic  iron  doors  (water  for  ample  pro- 
tection against  fire  has  been  piped  throughout  the  buildings), 
and  every  room  has  been  designed  to  be  fireproof,  soundproof, 
and  verminproof. 

The  entire  plant,  with  its  up-to-date  appointments  and  equip- 
ments, lighting,  heating,  and  sanitation,  possesses  within  itself 
a  most  important  educational  value.   The  location  is  especially 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


503 


favorable  for  study  and  health  and  comfort,  facts  never  more 
genuinely  appreciated  than  since  the  removal  from  the  old 
quarters  in  the  city.  Double  experience  has  strongly  empha- 
sized the  wisdom  of  building  on  this  eligible  and  healthful  site 
— conveniently  near,  yet  away  from  the  dust  and  noise  of  the 
crowded  city. 

The  institution  has  been  projected  for  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  Christian  womanhood.  Its  great  aim  is  to  offer  to 
young  women  unsurpassed  opportunities  and  facilities  for 
broad  and  deep  culture,  careful  and  exact  training,  thorough 
and  liberal  education,  under  influences  that  are  positively 
Christian. 

For  the  past  twenty-one  years  the  work  of  the  institution  has 
been  of  a  high  grade.  Each  session  has  witnessed  some  ad- 
vancement, and  the  published  requirements  have  been  strictly 
enforced.  The  officials  invite  a  critical  examination  of  the 
courses  outlined  in  the  catalogue  and  of  the  textbooks  which 
are  used.  In  April,  1911,  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  recognized  the  high  character 
of  the  work  done  and  advanced  the  institution  to  Class  A 
among  Southern  colleges. 

Following  is  the  list  of  Presidents :  Rev.  Whitefoord  Smith, 
D.D.,  1859-60 ;  Rev.  William  Martin,  1800-61 ;  Rev.  H.  M.  Mood, 
1861-64  (the  college  closed  in  1865  on  account  of  the  war  and 
was  rented  for  a  hotel  until  1873)  ;  Rev.  S.  B.  Jones,  D.D., 
1873-76;  Hon.  J.  L.  Jones,  Ph.D.,  1876-81;  Rev.  O.  A.  Darby, 
D.D.,  1881-90;  Rev.  S.  B.  Jones,  D.D.,  1890-94;  Rev.  J.  A.  Rice, 
D.D.,  1894-1900;  Rev.  W.  W.  Daniel,  D.D.,  1900-16. 

Greensboro  College  for  Women. 

Greensboro  College  for  Women,  located  at  Greensboro,  N. 
C,  has  a  history  reaching  far  back  into  the  period  of  ante- 
bellum life.  It  was  chartered  in  1838  and  is  the  second  oldest 
chartered  institution  for  women  in  the  South.  The  corner 
stone  of  the  first  building  was  not  laid  until  1843,  and  it  was 
not  until  1846  that  the  school  opened  its  doors  for  students. 
The  first  President  was  the  Rev.  Solomon  Lee,  who  was  rated 
as  a  capable  and  well-equipped  teacher,  and  he  was  assisted  by 


504 


History  of  Methodism. 


an  able  faculty.  At  once  the  college  drew  to  its  halls  many 
students  from  the  far  Southern  States. 

Dr.  Lee  was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  by  Dr.  A.  M.  Shipp, 
a  man  whose  record  as  an  educator  is  written  high  in  the  years 
of  his  service.  He  administered  the  affairs  of  the  college  for 
three  years,  after  which  he  resigned  to  accept  a  professorship 
in  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  His  successor  was  Dr. 
Charles  F.  Deems,  afterwards  widely  known  as  the  pastor  of 
the  Church  of  the  Strangers,  in  New  York  City.  Under  the 
presidency  of  Dr.  Deems  the  college  enjoyed  an  era  of  great 
prosperity.  The  fourth  President  of  the  college,  the  successor 
of  Dr.  Deems,  was  Dr.  T.  M.  Jones,  whose  memory  hundreds 
of  noble  women  afterwards  rose  up  to  call  blessed.  During 
the  presidency  of  Dr.  Jones  the  main  building  of  the  college 
was  destroyed  by  fire.  This  calamity,  joined  with  the  misfor- 
tunes brought  by  war,  necessitated  the  closing  of  the  school 
for  a  period  of  ten  years.  The  corner  stone  of  a  new  building 
was  laid  in  1871 ;  and  in  August,  1873,  the  school  again  opened 
its  doors  for  the  reception  of  students.  Dr.  Jones  continued 
at  the  head  of  the  institution  until  his  death,  in  1800,  greatly 
lamented  by  the  Church  and  the  constituency  he  had  served  so 
well.  Dr.  B.  F.  Dixon  was  his  successor.  His  presidency  ex- 
tended over  a  period  of  three  years,  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  Dr.  Frank  L.  Reid,  who  was  at  the  same  time  editor  of  the 
l!<il(  i(jh  Christian  Advocate,  He  had  fairly  begun  what  prom- 
ised to  be  a  great  and  successful  experience  in  the  discharge 
of  these  double  duties  when  he  was  suddenly  called  from  his 
earthly  activities  by  the  messenger  of  death.  Dr.  Dred  Pen 
cock,  who  had  been  a  useful  member  of  the  faculty,  was  elected 
to  the  presidency  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Reid.  On  account  of  ill 
health.  Dr.  Peacock  resigned  this  post  in  1902,  when  Mrs.  Lucy 
H.  Robertson  was  selected  as  his  successor.  She  had  been 
for  a  number  of  years  connected  with  the  school  as  a  member 
of  its  faculty,  and  the  success  which  attended  her  administra- 
tion was  no  surprise. 

Between  1002  and  1004  untoward  conditions  came  upon  the 
college.  First,  its  Board  of  Trustees  was  greatly  discouraged 
on  account  of  stringent  finances  and  decided  to  put  the  prop- 
erty in  process  of  liquidation.    Later  the  main  building  of  the 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


505 


college  was  destroyed  by  fire.  The  end  of  the  institution  now 
seemed  to  have  come;  but,  through  the  almost  superhuman  ef- 
forts of  the  alumnae  and  the  cooperation  of  the  Annual  Con 
ferences,  a  new  and  splendid  building  was  erected  in  1904,  and 
the  school  opened  with  the  largest  registration  of  students 
known  to  its  history.  Since  then  its  prosperity  has  continued. 
During  the  year  1906-07  the  attendance  reached  high-water 
mark,  and  the  same  conditions  have  continued  down  to  the 
year  1916.  In  the  year  1913,  Mrs.  Robertson  having  resigned, 
Rev.  S.  B.  Turrentine,  D.D.,  a  member  of  the  Western  North 
Carolina  Conference,  was  elected  President.  He  possesses  the 
elements  of  an  organizer  and  a  leader.  Under  his  administra- 
tion the  institution  has  been  enlarged,  constructive  work  under- 
taken and  accomplished,  and  the  college  continues  on  its  path 
of  prophecy  and  hope. 

Athens  Female  College. 

The  Athens  Female  College  was  incorporated  by  the  State 
of  Alabama  in  1843  as  a  female  institute  of  the  Tennessee  An- 
nual Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
Its  trustees  were :  A.  L.  P.  Green,  Thomas  Maddin,  A.  F.  Dris- 
kill,  Joshua  Boucher,  F.  G.  Ferguson,  Daniel  Coleman,  Ira  E. 
Hobbs,  B.  W.  Maclin,  Thomas  Bass,  J.  F.  Sowell,  T.  S.  Malone, 
J.  C.  Malone,  W.  Richardson,  G.  S.  Houston,  R.  W.  Vasser,  J. 
McDonald,  and  J.  L.  Craig.  Rev.  R.  H.  Rivers,  D.D.,  was 
elected  as  its  first  President. 

In  1870  that  part  of  the  State  of  Alabama  formerly  in  the 
Tennessee  Conference  was  included  in  the  newly  organized 
North  Alabama  Conference.  The  Athens  College  thus  became 
the  property  of  the  new  body.  In  1872  the  charter  was  amend- 
ed, changing  the  status  of  the  school  from  that  of  institute  to 
college.  Dr.  Rivers's  administration  began  in  1843,  when  this 
distinguished  teacher  and  author  was  in  the  meridian  of  his 
strength.  He  had  a  broad  conception  of  the  scope  of  female 
education  and  sought  to  realize  his  ideals  in  the  conduct  of  the 
college. 

In  1850  Dr.  Rivers  resigned  the  presidency,  and  it  was  as- 
sumed by  Rev.  Benjamin  H.  Hubbard,  who  is  described  as  a 
man  of  genuine  scholarship  and  literary  ability.    Tn  1852  Dr. 


50G 


History  of  Methodism. 


Hubbard  went  to  the  presidency  of  the  Female  Institute  at 
Jackson,  Tenn.,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Smith  W.  Moore, 
who  had  been  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  college  under 
the  retiring  President.  Professor  Moore  was  followed  in  the 
presidency  by  Rev.  Isom  Finley,  whose  incumbency  extended 
over  a  period  of  two  years,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Prof. 
George  E.  Naff,  who  in  1858  accepted  the  principalship  of  the 
Soule  Female  College,  at  Murfreesboro,  Tenn.  A  departure 
and  a  new  experience  are  now  to  be  recorded  in  the  history 
of  the  college.  Mrs.  Jane  Hamilton  Childs  was  elected  to  the 
presidency.  "Madam"  Childs,  as  she  was  generally  addressed, 
was  a  Virginia  lady  of  great  dignity  of  character  and  pro- 
nounced culture,  as  also  of  deep  piety.  She  greatly  stressed  the 
matter  of  female  accomplishments,  and  the  graduates  of  her 
classes  became  women  of  remarkable  grace  and  social  preemi- 
nence. Her  administration  covered  the  distressing  years  of  the 
War  between  the  States.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  presi- 
dency passed  to  the  Rev.  James  M.  Wright,  who  was  the  in- 
cumbent for  six  years.  In  1873  Rev.  James  Armstrong  ac- 
cepted the  presidency  and  continued  the  work  for  four  years. 
His  successor  was  Prof.  C.  L.  Smith,  of  Winchester,  Tenn. 
During  the  next  few  vears  there  were  four  Presidents — name- 
ly,  William  A.  Rogers,  M.  G.  Williams,  Howard  Key,  and  Vir- 
gil O.  Hawkins.  In  1895  Z.  A.  Parker  became  President.  After 
some  years  he  resigned  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the  new  col- 
lege at  Birmingham.  Other  Presidents  have  been  Dr.  H.  W. 
Browder,  Rev.  H.  G.  Davis,  Dr.  E.  M.  Glenn,  and  Miss  Mary 
Xorman  Moore.  The  President  incumbent  is  Rev.  B.  B.  Glas- 
gow, D.D. 

Southern  University. 

One  of  the  very  early  schools  of  Methodism  in  the  South  is 
the  Southern  University,  located  at  Greensboro,  Ala.  The  act 
of  the  General  Conference  of  1824,  in  exhorting  the  Annual 
Conferences  to  consider  the  founding  of  institutions  of  learn- 
ing as  bulwarks  of  the  Christian  Church,  was  fruitful  of  large 
results.  It  was,  however,  not  until  1854  that  the  Alabama 
Conference  felt  able  to  undertake  its  share  of  the  work  of 
realizing  the  general  educational  ideal.  In  that  year  the  Con- 
ference appointed  a  committee  to  select  a  site,  procure  funds, 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


507 


and  begin  the  work.  The  session  of  1855,  after  much  debate, 
located  the  new  school  at  Greensboro.  The  citizens  of  that 
place  and  the  rich  planting  country  contiguous  thereto  had 
promised  |300,000  as  a  bonus  for  this  location. 

In  185G  the  legislature  of  the  State  granted  the  new  insti- 
tution a  charter.  The  doors  of  the  school  were  opened  for  the 
reception  of  students  in  October,  1859.  Dr.  Landon  C.  Gar- 
land, afterwards  Chancellor  of  Vanderbilt  University,  but  at 
that  time  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Alabama,  was  chosen 
as  first  President,  and  after  deliberation  declined.  Dr.  Wil- 
liam M.  Wightman,  subsequently  elected  bishop,  accepted  the 
post  and  started  on  its  course  of  great  usefulness  the  institu- 
tion which  it  was  fondly  hoped  might  some  day  become  a  uni- 
versity. Besides  Dr.  Wightman,  who  had  the  chair  of  Bib- 
lical Literature,  the  faculty  had  in  it  other  distinguished 
men  of  the  Church  of  that  day.  Amongst  these  were  Dr. 
Thomas  N.  Lupton,  afterwards  in  the  faculty  of  Vanderbilt 
University,  and  Dr.  Edward  Wadsworth,  one  of  the  most  fa- 
mous preachers  and  scholarly  men  known  to  the  history  of 
Alabama  Methodism.  Broad  plans  were  laid  for  increasing 
the  endowment  and  the  equipment  of  the  institution,  so  as  to 
make  it  a  university  indeed;  but  these  plans  had  hardly  been 
matured  when  the  calamitous  years  of  the  War  between  the 
States  came  on.  The  students  enlisted  in  the  rapidly  forming 
armies  of  the  Confederacy,  the  endowment  was  swept  away  in 
the  ruin  which  was  visited  upon  the  country,  and  the  new  con- 
ditions which  came  to  the  South  after  the  wreck  of  the  great 
war  had  been  cleared  away,  presented  such  changed  relations  of 
population  and  such  new  prophecies  of  commercial  centraliza- 
tion as  to  make  the  old  large  hope  of  the  school's  promoters 
impossible  of  realization.  However,  the  foundations  of  a  useful 
college  had  been  laid,  and  these  have  been  successfully  held,  and 
the  school  has  fulfilled  its  destiny.  None  has  a  more  honorable 
record. 

The  North  Alabama  Conference  continued  its  support  of  the 
Southern  University  for  several  years  after  its  erection  into 
a  separate  body  by  the  General  Conference.  The  legislature 
of  the  State  made  the  two  Conferences  the  members  of  its  cor- 
poration, and  this  relationship  existed  for  fifteen  years.  After 


508 


History  of  Methodism. 


this  the  university  made  some  progress.  Its  lost  holdings 
were  recovered  and  its  equipment  increased.  In  1898  the 
North  Alabama  Conference  withdrew  from  the  corporation 
and  began  the  establishment  of  Birmingham  College,  leaving 
the  Alabama  Conference  as  the  owner  and  patron  of  the  school. 
The  list  of  the  alumni  contains  the  names  of  many  distin- 
guished men  and  leaders  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  Presidents  who  have  served  the 
university :  Rev.  William  M.  Wightman,  D.D.,  November,  1858, 
to  July,  18G7;  Rev.  Edward  Wadsworth,  D.D.,  Acting  Presi- 
dent, July,  18G7,  to  December,  1870 ;  Rev.  Allen  Skeen  Andrews, 
D.D.,  December,  1870,  to  July,  1875 ;  Rev.  Luther  Smith,  D.D., 
July,  1875,  to  July,  1879 ;  Rev.  Josiah  Lewis,  D.D.,  July,  1880, 
to  July,  18S1 ;  Rev.  Francis  Marion  Peterson,  D.D.,  Act- 
ing President,  July,  1881,  to  June,  1883;  Rev.  Allen  Skeen  An- 
drews, D.D.,  June,  1883,  to  June,  1891;  Rev.  John  Ormond 
Keener,  D.D.,  June,  1894,  to  January,  1899;  Rev.  Samuel  Mon- 
roe Hosmer,  D.D.,  1899  to  1910;  Rev.  Andrew  Sledd,  Ph.D., 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  1910  to  1914;  Rev.  Charles  Andrew  Rush,  D.D., 
1914-16. 

The  property  of  the  university  consists  of  thirty  acres  of 
land.  Upon  this  land  are  located  the  university,  or  main  build- 
ing, the  President's  home,  three  residences  for  professors,  the 
gymnasium,  and  the  athletic  fields.  Opposite  the  main  building, 
across  the  street,  is  Hamilton  Hall,  which  is  set  apart  for  the 
use  of  the  university  academy. 

The  income  of  the  university,  apart  from  any  special  gifts, 
is  derived  from  three  sources:  interest  on  invested  funds  (en- 
dowment), Conference  assessments  for  education,  and  students* 
tuition  and  fees. 

Birmingham  College. 

The  Birmingham  College  is  one  of  the  newer  institutions  of 
Methodism.  It  is  owned  and  controlled  by  the  North  Alabama 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Chnrch,  South.  Pre 
vious  to  1896  that  Conference  affiliated  with  the  Alabama  Con 
ference  in  the  conduct  and  patronage  of  Southern  University, 
at  Greensboro,  Ala.;  but  at  this  date  it  was  definitely  decided 
to  begin  the  location  and  equipment  of  a  college  for  men  within 
the  bounds  of  the  Conference,  and  a  committee  to  carry  onl 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


50!) 


these  plans  was  duly  appointed.  This  committee,  after  care- 
ful investigation  and  deliberation,  selected  Birmingham  as  the 
site  of  the  new  college.  Of  the  wisdom  of  this  selection,  there 
has  never  been  any  doubt.  Interested  citizens  of  Birmingham 
and  the  State  made  a  donation  of  fifty-six  acres  of  land  to  be 
used  as  a  campus.  The  beauty  of  the  situation  and  the  ac- 
cessibility of  this  block  of  land  made  the  gift  peculiarly  ac- 
ceptable. It  also  has  the  prospect  of  great  increase  in  value. 
The  college  property,  through  the  growth  of  the  city,  is  now 
near  the  center  of  the  corporation  and  has  all  the  natural  ad- 
vantages and  conveniences  to  be  desired. 

In  April,  1898,  Rev.  Z.  A.  Parker,  D.D.,  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  college.  A  faculty  was  duly  chosen  and  organized ; 
and  on  September  14,  1808,  in  the  clear  sunlight  of  an  auspi- 
cious day,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  congregation  of  people, 
the  North  Alabama  Conference  College  (such  was  the  name  of 
the  institution  at  its  beginning)  opened  its  halls  for  the  recep- 
tion of  students. 

From  the  day  of  the  opening  until  the  present  time,  the  col- 
lege has  grown  in  the  favor  and  confidence  of  the  people  of 
North  Alabama.  To-day  there  is  no  division  within  the  ranks 
of  the  patronizing  Conference  either  as  to  opinion  or  effort,  so 
far  as  Birmingham  College  is  concerned.  The  Conference,  with 
its  239  itinerant  preachers,  its  100,000  lay  members,  and  its 
host  of  adherents,  is  united  in  the  support  of  the  school,  and 
the  future  is  brighter  than  ever  before. 

In  the  presidency  of  the  college  the  following  have  served  in 
the  order  named:  Rev.  Z.  A.  Parker,  D.D.,  Rev.  E.  M.  Glenn, 
Rev.  John  S.  Robertson,  B.S.,  Rev.  Anson  West,  D.D.,  Rev. 
John  R.  Turner,  Rev.  J.  H.  McCoy,  A.M.,  D.D.,  Rev.  John  I). 
Simpson,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  Thornwell  Haynes,  A.B.,  M.A.  These 
men  have  wrought  faithfully  and  well.  Increasing  honor  will 
be  bestowed  upon  them  with  the  growth  of  the  college. 

At  the  session  of  the  North  Alabama  Conference  held  in 
Gadsden,  Ala.,  in  November,  1906,  the  Board  of  Trustees  met 
and  changed  the  name  of  the  North  Alabama  Conference  Col- 
lege to  Birmingham  College. 

During  the  summer  of  1909,  according  to  the  college  report, 
the  Board  consummated  a  deal  that  is  destined  to  mark  an 


510 


History  of  Methodism. 


epoch  iu  the  history  and  development  of  the  college.  While  the 
institution  owned  a  large  body  of  land,  it  had  become  more  ap- 
parent, year  by  year,  that  more  land  would  be  needed  for  the 
expansion  that  the  future  is  expected  to  bring  about.  A  body 
of  land  lying  just  back  of  the  main  building  and  within  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  it,  consisting  of  eighteen  acres 
and  a  fraction,  was  purchased,  at  $1,000  per  acre,  of  the  Walk- 
er Land  Company  during  the  summer.  This  acquisition  gives 
the  college  sixty-eight  acres  and,  in  addition,  bodies  up  the 
property  so  as  to  make  possible  the  carrying  out  of  an  exten- 
sive scheme  of  buildings  and  grounds  as  the  college  grows. 
The  property  and  holdings  of  the  college  are  thus  sixty-eight 
acres  in  one  body.  The  main  building  is  of  red  pressed  brick, 
three  stories  high,  and  covered  with  slate.  Three  commodi- 
ous dormitory  buildings  also  have  been  erected.  They  are 
of  thoroughly  modern  design  and  finish  and  are  provided  with 
every  convenience  and  made  sanitary  throughout.  During 
the  summer  of  1911  a  gymnasium,  completely  equipped,  was 
erected.  To  this  cluster  of  buildings  is  being  added  a  new 
science  hall,  fitted  out  with  the  latest  facilities  and  apparatus 
for  efficient  instruction  in  the  sciences.  The  trustees  have  in- 
augurated and  are  prosecuting  a  campaign  for  raising  a  fund 
of  $250,000,  one-half  of  which  is  to  be  set  aside  for  endowment 
and  the  other  half  to  be  used  in  the  erection  of  more  buildings. 

Emory  and  Henry  College. 

Emory  and  Henry  College  was  founded  in  183G  by  Creed 
Fulton.  The  first  President  was  Charles  Collins.  The  college 
was  named  for  Bishop  Emory  and  for  Patrick  Henry;  but  it 
was  more  in  honor  of  Madam  Russell,  the  wife  of  General  Rus- 
sell and  sister  of  the  great  Virginia  orator,  than  of  her  brother. 
Madam  Russell  and  her  husband  were  amongst  the  early  con- 
verts to  the  gospel  of  Methodism  in  the  territory  of  the  Holston 
Conference.  Bishop  Asbury  was  often  an  honored  guest  in 
their  home  and  speaks  affectionately  of  them  in  his  Journal. 
The  corner  stone  of  Emory  and  Henry  College  was  laid  on 
September  30,  1836.  President  Collins  invited  to  his  assistance 
three  young  men  from  New  England  and  graduates  of  Wes- 
leyan  University.    One  of  these  young  men  was  Ephraim  E. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


511 


Wiley.  President  Collins  resigned  in  1852,  and  Dr.  Wiley  was 
called  to  the  office  and  held  it  continuously  until  1870,  a  period 
of  twenty-seven  years. 

The  history  of  Emory  and  Henry  College  is  inseparable  from 
the  name  and  memory  of  Dr.  Wiley.  In  the  body  of  this  his- 
tory we  have  sought  to  pay  a  fitting  tribute  to  his  name  and 
worth.  The  list  of  the  Presidents  of  the  college  since  the  re- 
tirement of  Dr.  Wiley  is  as  follows :  John  L.  Buchanan,  1879- 
80 ;  David  Bulling,  1880-85 ;  E.  E.  Hoss,  1885-86,  at  the  end  of 
which  year  he  resigned  to  accept  a  chair  in  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity; T.  W.  Jordan,  188G-88;  R.  W.  Jones,  1889;  James  Atkins, 
1889-93;  R.  G.  Waterhouse,  who  was  President  for  seventeen 
years,  1893-1910.  The  period  that  covered  the  presidency  of 
Bishop  Waterhouse  was  one  of  marked  prosperity.  Within  re- 
cent years  new  buildings,  new  equipment,  and  some  endowment 
have  added  much  to  the  strength  of  the  institution.  Rev.  C. 
C.  Weaver  is  the  President  incumbent  and  is  holding  the  insti- 
tution up  to  its  historic  standard. 

Emory  and  Henry  College  has  given  four  bishops  to  the 
Church — namely,  Hoss,  Atkins,  Waterhouse,  and  Lambuth. 

Martha  Washington  College. 

Martha  Washington  College,  Abingdon,  Va.,  was  founded  by 
the  Odd  Fellows  in  1853,  being  named  by  them  in  honor  of  the 
wife  of  the  first  President  of  the  republic.  In  1858  the  college 
became  the  property,  through  purchase,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South.  It  was  chiefly  through  the  active  influ- 
ence of  Dr.  E.  E.  Wiley  that  this  purchase  was  made.  He  after- 
wards became  its  President.  The  first  President  appointed  by 
the  Church  was  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Harris,  who  began  his  work  in 
I860.  He  continued  in  office  until  1806,  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  D.  Arbogast.  In  1871  Dr.  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham  became 
President.  For  several  years  the  minutes  of  the  Holston  Con- 
ference do  not  indicate  the  name  of  the  President  of  Martha 
Washington  College.  In  the  meantime  (1875)  Dr.  Cunnyngham 
had  been  elected  to  the  editorship  of  the  Sunday  school  period- 
icals of  the  Church.  In  1879  the  name  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Hoss  ap- 
pears in  the  minutes  as  President  of  the  college,  from  which 
post  he  went  to  the  presidency  of  Emory  and  Henry  College. 


512 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  present  head  of  Martha  Washington  College  is  Rev.  S.  D. 
Long,  D.D.,  who  has  enjoyed  a  prosperous  incumbency  and  has 
lent  much  strength  and  dignity  to  the  name  of  the  institution. 
New  buildings  and  new  equipments  have  been  added  under  his 
presidency. 

Other  Holstox  Colleges. 

Sullins  College,  at  Bristol,  Tenn.,  was  founded  by  Dr.  David 
Sullins  in  1859.  It  enjoyed  much  prosperity  for  a  long  time 
and  is  honored  in  a  list  of  alumnae  extending  through  nearly 
two  generations.  During  the  p>ast  year  the  buildings  of  this 
worthy  institution  wTere  entirely  consumed  by  fire,  and  no  steps 
have  yet  been  taken  to  rebuild  them. 

Centenary  College,  at  Cleveland,  Tenn.,  was  founded  by  the 
Kev.  George  R.  Stuart,  D.D.,  in  1885.  Dr.  Sullins  was  the 
first  President  of  this  institution  and  for  a  number  of  years 
directed  its  interests  and  filled  the  presidential  chair  with 
great  credit  to  himself  and  the  Church.  Few  colleges  in  Meth- 
odism have  done  more  solid  work  for  the  cause  of  Christian 
education.  The  school  has  ample  buildings,  an  attractive  cam- 
pus, and  has  maintained  a  high-grade  curriculum.  It  is  lo- 
cated in  a  fine  field  for  patronage  and  has  drawn  its  yearly 
list  of  students  from  the  old-time  families  of  the  Mississippi 
Delta  and  the  blue-grass  regions  of  Tennessee.  The  President 
now  in  charge  is  the  Rev.  Barney  Thompson. 

Texas  Woman's  College. 
The  Texas  Woman's  College,  located  at  Fort  Worth,  is  the 
only  exclusively  woman's  college  founded  and  controlled  by  the 
Methodists  of  Texas.  It  is  the  lineal  successor  of  an  important 
foundation  known  as  the  Polytechnic  College.  The  Woman's 
College  proper  began  its  history  with  the  session  of  1011-1.". 
Its  second  session  was  begun  with  the  enrollment  of  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  young  women,  which  fact  was  accepted  as 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  need  of  such  an  institution  in  that 
great  State.  It  stands  for  the  full  and  rounded  education  of 
young  women;  and  in  its  printed  announcements,  as  also  in  its 
brief  history,  it  has  fully  emphasized  a  high  ideal  of  Christian 
education.  It  is  situated  on  a  beautiful  eminence  in  the  en- 
virons of  the  prosperous  commercial  city  of  Fort  Worth.  The 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


513 


place  is  healthful,  retired,  and  homelike.  The  physical  plant 
of  the  college  is  ample  and  growing.  It  consists  of  five  brick 
and-stone  buildings  of  modern  construction  and  conveniently 
appointed  throughout.  The  administration  building  is  of  im- 
posing proportions  and  occupies  a  central  location  on  the  cam- 
pus. The  physical  laboratory,  the  biological  department,  the 
chemical  laboratory,  the  domestic  art  laboratory,  and  the  art 
studio  are  all  exceptionally  well  equipped,  and  the  teaching  of 
the  courses  represented  by  these  is  thorough  and  scientific.  It 
is  claimed  that  the  gymnasium  is  one  of  the  best  for  women  to 
be  found  anywhere.  The  college  church  stands  on  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  campus.  The  chaplain  of  the  school  is  the  pastor 
of  this  congregation,  regularly  appointed  by  the  Central  Texas 
Conference.  In  addition  to  the  college  library,  the  students 
have  access  to  the  large  and  well-furnished  Carnegie  Library, 
in  convenient  reach.  The  college  issues  its  own  publication  and 
has  many  other  interesting  and  helpful  features,  such  as  a  loan 
fund,  available  to  worthy  and  needy  students  at  a  low  rate  of 
interest,  and  several  valuable  scholarships.  Rev.  H.  A.  Boaz, 
D.D.,  who  may  be  said  to  be  the  founder  of  this  splendid  insti- 
tution, is  its  President.  The  success  of  Dr.  Boaz  in  raising 
funds  for  the  beginning  of  this  school  is  written  down  as  one  of 
the  record  incidents  of  fiscal  Methodism.  Rev.  J.  D.  Young,  as 
Vice  President,  is  the  efficient  assistant  of  Dr.  Boaz. 

Central  College  for  Women. 

The  Central  College  for  Women,  Lexington,  Mo.,  was  or- 
ganized in  1869  and  was  then  known  as  Marvin  Female  Insti- 
tute. At  that  time  a  property  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the 
Masons  of  Missouri,  called  the  Masonic  College,  consisting  of 
buildings  and  grounds,  was  by  this  noble  order  donated  to 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  be  used  perpetually 
for  educational  purposes.  The  institute  then  moved  into  the 
new  quarters  thus  provided.  In  1906  the  college  wras  reincor- 
porated as  Central  College  for  Women.  The  high  purpose  of 
this  school,  as  announced  in  its  catalogue,  is  "the  building  of 
Christian  character,  the  symmetrical  development  of  the  men- 
tal powers,  and  the  care  of  the  body."  The  college  is  beauti- 
fully located  upon  historic  ground  in  the  citv  of  Lexington, 
33 


514 


History  of  Methodism. 


overlooking  the  Missouri  River.  In  addition  to  an  endow- 
ment of  $90,000  already  invested,  steps  are  being  taken  to  in- 
crease the  foundation  to  $300,000.  It  is  well  equipped  with 
buildings,  dormitories,  library,  and  other  college  accessories. 
Rev.  Z.  M.  Williams,  A.M.,  D.D.,  is  now  the  President  of  Cen- 
tral College  for  Women  and  has  successfully  occupied  that  post 
for  a  number  of  years. 

Galloway  College. 

Through  the  help  of  Bishop  Charles  Betts  Galloway  the  in- 
stitution for  women,  located  at  Searcy,  Ark.,  bearing  his  name, 
was  chartered  May  :5,  1888.  From  the  outset  Galloway  College 
was  the  property  of  the  three  Conferences  located  within  the 
bounds  of  the  State  of  Arkansas.  The  first  President  was  Rev. 
R.  W.  Irwin,  whose  untimely  death  prevented  his  ever  becom- 
ing President  in  fact.  He  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Sidney  H. 
Babcock,  through  whose  very  earnest  efforts  and  the  invaluable 
help  of  his  wife  the  school  had  its  beginning  and  was  started 
on  its  work  of  genuine  collegiate  education  for  the  young  worn 
en  of  Arkansas.  Following  his  resignation,  Dr.  John  H.  Dye 
was  President  for  four  years  and  a  half,  and  he  in  turn  gave 
place  to  Dr.  C.  C.  Godden.  It  was  during  the  presidency  of  the 
latter  that  the  school  gained  such  a  strong  hold  on  the  State 
that  its  life  as  a  woman's  college  seemed  assured.  Dr.  God- 
den's  administration  was  very  much  hampered  by  reason  of 
a  large  debt,  but  during  his  term  of  service  he  succeeded  in 
paying  almost  the  entire  amount.  He  was  active  in  the  work 
for  ten  years  and  a  half.  At  the  expiration  of  that  time, 
feeling  that  his  age  prevented  his  doing  as  much  as  he  liked 
for  the  school,  he  tendered  his  resignation  and  was  followed 
by  President  J.  M.  Williams,  who  has  already  finished  his 
ninth  year  in  charge. 

In  1898,  while  the  Little  Rock  Conference  was  in  session, 
during  the  early  part  of  Dr.  Godden's  administration,  the  col- 
lege was  completely  destroyed  by  fire;  but  in  the  ensuing  Sep- 
tember, through  the  wonderful  business  ability  of  Dr.  Godden, 
the  school  was  opened  and  enrolled  a  large  student  body. 

Galloway  has  recently  secured,  through  the  help  of  Rev.  W. 
C.  Watson,  of  the  Little  Rock  Conference,  a  building-and-en- 


ticliools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


dowment  fund  which  now  amounts  to  nearly  $100,000.  This 
lias  not  yet  been  collected,  but  is  in  the  form  of  bankable  paper. 

There  is  a  faculty  of  twenty- two  members.  Fourteen  units 
are  required  for  admission,  and  four  years  of  college  work  is 
done  by  every  student  who  takes  the  A.B.  degree,  which  is  the 
only  degree  the  college  confers.  Besides  the  regular  work, 
thorough  instruction  is  given  in  the  departments  of  music, 
expression,  art,  and  domestic  science.  The  school  annually 
enrolls  about  two  hundred  young  women.  It  is  a  college  of 
the  B  Class,  according  to  the  classification  of  the  General 
Board  of  Education,  and  meets  the  full  requirements  for  this 
work. 

Kentucky  Weslbyan  College. 

Kentucky  Wesleyan  College  was  founded  at  Millersburg, 
Ky.,  in  18GG.  Rev.  W.  C.  Dandy,  Rev.  Daniel  Stevenson,  Rev. 
John  H.  Linn,  Rev.  John  W.  Cunningham,  Rev.  John  C.  Har 
rison,  Rev.  Robert  Hiner,  David  Thornton,  Moreau  Brown, 
Hiram  Shaw,  B.  P.  Tevis,  William  Nunn,  and  A.  G.  Stitt  were 
charter  members  of  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Presidents  of  the  institution  : 
Rev.  Charles  Taylor,  A.M.,  M.D.,  D.D.,  1866-70;  Rev.  B.  Arbo- 
gast,  A.M.,  1870-73;  John  Darby,  Ph.D.,  1873-75;  Rev.  T.  J. 
Dodd,  D.D.,  1875-76;  Rev.  W.  H.  Anderson,  A.M.,  M.D.,  D.D., 
1876-79;  D.  W.  Batson,  A.M.,  1879-83;  Rev.  Alexander  Redd, 
A.M.,  D.D.,  1883-84 ;  D.  W.  Batson,  A.M.,  1884-93 ;  B.  T.  Spen- 
cer, A.M.,  Chairman  of  the  Faculty,  1893-95 ;  Rev.  E.  H.  Pearce, 
A.M.,  D.D.,  1895-1900;  executive  duties  administered  by  facul- 
ty, 1900-01;  Rev.  John  Laugdon  Weber,  D.D.,  Lit.D.,  1901-06; 
H.  K.  Taylor,  A.M.,  1906  09;  John  J.  Tigert,  A.B.,  A.M. 
(Oxon.),  1909-11 ;  Rev.  J.  L.  Clark,  A.B.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  1911-16. 

The  officials  believing  that  the  growing  town  of  Winchester 
offered  a  more  ideal  location  for  a  college,  the  Wesleyan  was 
moved  from  Millersburg  to  Winchester  in  1890. 

The  property  value  of  the  Wesleyan  is  f 125,000.  The  campus 
consists  of  eight  acres,  beautifully  located.  The  college  plant 
comprises  six  buildings — the  Administration  Building,  Dormi- 
tory, Library,  Gymnasium,  President's  cottage,  and  Academy. 

The  Wesleyan  has  an  endowment  of  more  than  $100,000. 


516 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  college  authorities  are  engaged  in  a  campaign  to  increase 
the  endowment  JjC)0,000. 

The  Wesleyan  offers  full  college  courses  leading  to  the  de- 
grees of  B.S.,  A.B.,  and  M.A. 

Lagrange  College. 

The  history  of  Lagrange  College  is  interesting.  Instituted 
in  1833  (White's  "Historical  Collection  of  Georgia,"  pages 
G51,  G52;  Laws  of  Georgia,  1847),  it  was,  even  in  its  infancy, 
an  academy  of  high  grade.  Its  first  teacher  of  note  was  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Stanley.  At  the  time  of  its  founding  there  was 
no  institution  devoted  solely  to  the  higher  education  of  girls 
and  young  women. 

In  the  year  184G,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  J.  T.  Mont- 
gomery, a  charter  was  procured,  and  Lagrange  Institute  be- 
came Lagrange  Female  College,  with  all  the  rights  of  con- 
ferring "degrees,  honors,  and  other  distinctions  of  merit"  ac- 
corded to  other  colleges  and  universities. 

After  several  years  of  prosperity,  the  entire  property  was 
sold  to  the  Georgia  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South.  In  September,  1857,  the  college  began  its 
distinctive  work  of  Christian  education  while  the  Rev.  W.  C. 
Connor  was  President.  In  the  ensuing  years  it  received  pat- 
ronage from  every  section  of  the  South. 

During  the  presidency  of  the  Rev.  W.  M.  Harris,  D.D.,  in 
1859,  the  college  took  precedence  over  all  Church  schools  in 
sending  out  the  first  resident  graduate  class  in  the  South. 

The  work  of  the  institution  was  arrested  by  a  most  disas- 
trous fire  in  18G0.  However,  after  the  close  of  the  War  between 
the  States,  Rev.  James  R.  Mason,  through  his  perseverance  and 
indomitable  energy,  succeeded  in  rebuilding;  and  the  college 
started  on  a  long  and  prosperous  career.  Upon  the  resignation 
of  Dr.  Mason,  Rev.  John  W.  Heidt,  D.D.,  became  President. 
The  educational  facilities  of  the  college,  its  curriculum,  and  its 
attendance  increased  marvelously  under  his  wise  administra- 
tion. 

When  Dr.  Heidt  retired  from  the  presidency,  in  1885,  Rufus 
W.  Smith,  A.M.,  took  the  office.  During  his  administration  the 
property  was  nearly  quadrupled  in  value,  and  the  curriculum 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


517 


was  advanced  to  that  of  a  standard  college.  For  nearly  thirty 
years  Dr.  Smith's  hand  was  at  the  helm  of  Lagrange  College, 
steering  it  safely  through  stress  and  storm.  He  died  Saturday, 
January  2,  1915.  His  unexpired  presidential  term  was  com 
pleted  by  his  son,  Alwyn  Means  Smith,  Director  of  Music,  La- 
grange College. 

In  May,  1015,  Miss  Daisy  Davies  was  elected  President. 

Lagrange  College  is  located  in  the  city  of  Lagrange,  Troup 
County,  Ga.  Lagrange  is  seventy-one  miles  from  Atlanta,  on 
the  Atlanta  and  West  Point  Railroad,  one  hundred  and  five 
miles  from  Macon,  on  the  Macon  and  Birmingham  Railroad, 
and  about  halfway  between  Brunswick  and  Birmingham,  on 
the  Atlanta,  Birmingham,  and  Atlantic  Railway. 

The  principal  buildings  of  Lagrange  College  are  the  College 
Building,  the  Orreon  Smith  Memorial  Building,  the  Harriet 
Hawkes  Memorial  Building,  and  a  cottage.  The  Harriet 
Hawkes  Building  was  completed  in  1911.  It  is  one  of  the 
finest  college  structures  in  the  South. 

The  value  of  the  Lagrange  College  property  is  estimated  at 
#200,000.  This  institution  has  probably  the  largest  loan  fund 
of  any  college  in  the  South.  The  W.  S.  Witham  Fund  has 
grown  to  $24,000,  and  the  J.  C.  Davidson  Fund  is  $1,000. 
Many  improvements  are  now  being  made  in  the  buildings,  con- 
stantly increasing  the  property  value.  There  is  as  yet  no  en- 
dowment, but  President  Davies  will  probably  soon  institute  a 
campaign  for  one. 

Southern  College. 

Southern  College,  which  is  described  as  the  most  southern 
school  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States,  is  located  at  Suther- 
land, Fla.,  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  is  in  the  center  of  the 
most  famous  and  the  most  generally  sought  region  of  Florida. 
It  is  also  one  of  the  newrer  schools  of  the  Church,  though  its 
history  goes  far  enough  back  to  give  it  an  exhibit  of  large  and 
satisfactory  results  in  the  field  of  education.  It  is  practically 
without  competition  in  the  whole  State;  and  because  of  the 
attractiveness  of  its  location  and  the  fascination  of  a  match- 
less climate,  it  has  a  call  upon  a  patronage  reaching  to  an  in- 
definite distance  northward.    Malaria  is  unknown,  and  in- 


518 


History  of  Methodism. 


numerable  famous  health  resorts  are  within  easy  reach.  The 
campus  occupies  the  crest  of  a  knoll  overlooking  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  hand  of  a  landscape  artist  has  greatly  beauti- 
fied and  adorned  the  same.  A  music  conservatory  has  been 
erected  at  a  cost  of  $100,000.  Other  buildings,  as  laboratories, 
gymnasium,  library  and  reading  room,  dormitories  and  club 
houses,  are  in  keeping  with  the  plan  of  the  music  hall.  The 
President  of  this  institution  is  Rahenus  H.  Alderman,  A.B., 
who  also  discharges  the  duty  of  Professor  of  Philosophy. 

Blackstone  College. 
The  Blackstone  College  for  Girls  was  conceived  in  answer 
to  a  persistently  operative  ideal — that  of  a  school  which  should 
seek  the  perfect  development  of  the  whole  life  of  woman  in 
the  years  of  her  preparation.  The  projectors  of  this  school 
express  the  belief  that  this  ideal  has  been  realized  and  that 
the  physical  equipment  and  teaching  methods  of  their  insti- 
tution are  fully  shaped  to  the  end  of  the  complete  education 
of  young  women.  The  school  was  incorporated  as  the  Black- 
stone Female  Institute  on  February  15,  1802.  The  charter 
granted  by  the  State  made  the  incorporators  and  their  associ- 
ates and  successors  a  Board  of  Managers ;  but  it  was  provided 
that  all  vacancies  arising  in  this  Board  of  Managers  should  be 
tilled  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  District  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  the  territory  of  which 
it  is  located.  The  growth  of  this  college  has  been  little  short 
of  a  marvel.  Beginning  with  a  single  building  erected  in  1804, 
valued  at  $25,000,  it  had  grown  by  1910  to  be  an  aggregation 
of  splendid  structures  having  a  total  valuation  of  $100,000. 
At  the  commencement  of  1915,  in  response  to  the  demand  of 
many  friends  of  the  school,  the  Board  of  Trustees  decided  to 
add  two  years  of  college  work  to  the  course  of  study,  thus  ne- 
cessitating a  change  of  name  from  institute  to  college.  Since 
the  completion  of  the  present  improvements  plans  have  been 
put  on  foot  for  erecting  another  large  building  so  as  to  com- 
plete the  symmetry  and  capacity  of  the  present  system  of  ad- 
ministration and  dormitory  structures.  When  these  improve- 
ments are  added,  the  equipment  will  be  as  complete  as  any  col- 
lege of  its  class  can  l>o;ist.    Dr.  .Tames  Cannon,  Jr.,  editor  of 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


519 


the  Baltimore  and  Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  is  President 
of  the  college  and  instructor  in  psychology,  ethics,  and  the 
English  Bible. 

Howard-Payne  College. 

Howard-Payne  College  originated  as  a  high  school  in  Fay- 
ette, Mo.  The  first  graduating  class  received  certificates  in 
1849.  It  soon  became  a  first-class  seminary  and  enjoyed  an 
era  of  much  prosperity.  In  1851  a  boarding  house  for  young- 
ladies  was  erected.  It  is  spoken  of  in  the  records  of  the  school 
as  having  become  a  model  for  similar  structures  in  various 
parts  of  the  State.  In  January,  1854,  the  seminary  buildings, 
with  all  the  furniture,  library,  and  apparatus,  were  destroyed 
by  fire.  The  school  reopened  in  the  churches  of  the  town,  and 
in  due  time  new  buildings  were  erected.  In  1855  the  two  de- 
partments were  separated,  that  part  of  the  institution  known 
as  Howard  High  School  becoming  a  school  for  young  ladies. 

The  school  was  first  chartered  by  the  legislature  of  Missouri 
in  1859  as  Howard  College.  An  accumulated  debt  necessitated 
its  sale  in  1869.  Kev.  Moses  U.  Payne,  a  renowned  philan- 
thropist of  the  Church,  purchased  it  and  deeded  it  to  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South.  In  consideration  of  the  liber- 
ality of  Mr.  Payne  the  Board  of  Curators  changed  the  name 
to  Howard-Payne  College.  Its  recent  history  has  been  one  of 
much  prosperity,  and  its  influence  throughout  the  Church  in 
Missouri  is  great.  Henry  Elbert  Stout,  A.B.,  has  the  honor  to 
preside  over  this  model  institution. 

Logan  College. 

Logan  College,  Russellville,  Ky.,  is  an  evolution.  Its  record 
runs  thus:  In  1828  a  school  for  girls  was  established  in  Rus- 
sellville by  a  local  minister,  the  Rev.  Robert  R.  Peebles.  The 
successor  of  this  school  was  one  conducted  after  1837  by  the 
Rev.  Henry  W.  Hunt,  also  a  local  minister.  As  late  as  1845  yet 
another  Methodist  school  was  taught  by  Miss  Louise  Douglass. 
Other  laborers  in  this  line  of  denominational  education  were: 
Mr.  John  Wakefield  and  his  wife;  Rev.  Thomas  Bottomley  and 
his  daughter,  Miss  Hannah,  who  afterwards  became  the  wife 
of  Dr.  David  Morton;  Rev.  J.  E.  Carnes,  whose  school  was 
dignified  by  the  title  of  academy;  and  Rev.  Edward  Stephen 


520 


History  of  Methodism. 


son,  D.D.  This  last  record  brought  the  history  down  to  1864. 
Dr.  David  Morton,  who  became  the  successor  of  Dr.  Stephen- 
son, projected  the  plan  of  making  the  academy  a  college.  He 
accordingly  secured  from  the  State  a  charter  for  Logan  Fe- 
male College.  In  1866  Dr.  K.  H.  Rivers,  of  renown  in  the 
Church,  was  selected  as  President.  Dr.  Rivers  continued  but 
a  year  in  the  presidency.  In  1874  Dr.  A.  B.  Stark  became 
head  of  the  school  and  continued  in  office  for  more  than  eight 
years,  his  work  attracting  the  notice  of  prominent  educators 
throughout  the  country. 

Dr.  Stark  was  succeeded  in  1883  by  Prof.  H.  K.  Taylor,  A.M., 
whose  vigorous  and  efficient  administration  lasted  six  years. 
In  1889  President  Taylor  gave  place  to  Prof.  A.  G.  Murphey, 
A.M.,  who  conducted  the  school  until  his  death,  in  1900.  He 
was  followed  by  Prof.  TV.  H.  Pritchett,  who  had  charge  of 
the  school  one  year,  and  he  in  turn  gave  place  to  Dr.  S.  A. 
Steel  for  one  year. 

In  1902  began  the  very  successful  seven-year  administration 
of  President  B.  E.  Atkins.  On  his  death,  in  1909,  Prof.  J.  L. 
Whiteside,  of  Missouri,  was  elected  to  the  presidency  and  held 
the  office  for  one  year. 

In  1910  Rev.  J.  W.  Repass,  of  Virginia,  was  chosen  President 
and  is  now  in  charge  of  the  college.  Since  his  election  about 
$30,000  has  been  expended  in  various  improvements  and  in 
the  erection  of  a  much-needed  new  building.  Logan  College  is 
now  one  of  the  best  school  properties  of  its  kind  in  the  State. 

Mansfield  Female  College. 

Henry  Coleman  Thweatt,  D.D.,  of  Halifax  County,  Va.,  re- 
solved to  establish  a  college  for  women  in  the  great  Southwest  ; 
and  in  company  with  the  Rev.  William  Doty  lie  selected  Mans- 
field, in  the  pine  hills  of  De  Soto  Parish,  La.,  as  the  site  for  the 
institution. 

From  the  citizens  of  Mansfield  and  surrounding  country 
about  £30,000  was  received,  and  in  1854  the  college  was  ready 
for  students.  In  1856  the  main  brick  building  was  completed. 
"The  buildings  and  grounds  were  presented  by  the  citizens  of 
Mansfield  to  the  Louisiana  Annual  Conference  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  its  session  in  January,  1855." 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


521 


"The  General  Assembly  of  the  State  incorporated  the  institu- 
tion in  February,  1855,  and  this  act  (No.  88  of  the  session  of 
1855)  was  signed  by  Gov.  P.  O.  Hebert  on  the  9th  of  March." 

The  War  between  the  States  brought  financial  troubles,  and 
the  property  was  sold  for  debt.  Mr.  Lewis  Phillips,  then  a 
resident  of  Mansfield,  became  the  purchaser.  The  battle  of 
Mansfield  was  fought  on  April  8,  1804,  and  the  college  build- 
ings were  used  as  the  Confederate  hospital. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  war  Dr.  John  C.  Keener- 
repurchased  the  property,  and,  again  free  of  debt,  it  was  placed 
under  the  care  of  the  Church. 

After  Dr.  Thweatt,  the  founder,  came  the  following  Presi- 
dents :  Dr.  Charles  B.  Stuart,  1864  to  ;  Rev.  Thomas  Arm- 
strong,  to  1880 ;  J.  Lane  Borden,  1880  to  1883 ;  Rev.  F.  M. 

Grace,  1883  to  1889;  Dr.  A.  D.  McVoy,  1889  to  1896;  Rev.  T.  S. 
Sligh,  1896  to  1907  (it  was  during  President  Sligh's  adminis- 
tration that  the  large  brick  annex  was  built)  ;  Prof.  O.  S.  Dean, 
1907  to  1909 ;  Prof.  George  L.  Harrell,  1909  to  1910 ;  Dr.  W.  L. 
Weber,  1910  to  his  death,  September  30,  1910;  Prof.  A.  B. 
Peters,  1910  to  1912 ;  R.  E.  Bobbitt,  1912  to  the  present  time. 

In  1913,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  President,  the  Board  of 
Trustees  unanimously  requested  of  the  General  Board  of  Edu- 
cation that  Mansfield  College  be  classified  as  a  junior  college. 
This  request  was  granted. 

In  1912  twenty-five  serial  bonds  of  f 1,000  each  were  sold,  and 
all  debts  were  settled.  The  Louisiana  Annual  Conference  is 
obligated  to  pay  fl,000  and  accumulated  interest  at  six  per 
cent  on  January  1  of  each  year.  This  is  being  done  each  year, 
and  four  bonds  have  been  retired. 

There  are  nine  acres  in  the  campus,  and  the  buildings  and 
grounds  are  estimated  to  be  worth  at  least  f 60,000.  There  is 
no  endowment,  and  there  is  no  debt  except  the  balance  of  bond 
issue. 

During  the  past  four  years  the  college  has  easily  paid  its  run- 
ning expenses,  and  in  addition  it  has  spent  more  than  f 4,000  of 
its  income  in  improvements  and  accommodations.  Its  fac- 
ulty has  increased  from  eight  to  thirteen ;  its  departments, 
from  three  to  five;  its  boarding  students,  from  twenty-one  to 


522 


History  of  Mt  t Iiodi.su,. 


sixty-eight;  its  income,  from  §8,500  to  over  §17,000.  The  grad 
uating  class  of  191G  was  composed  of  twenty-seven  young  ladies 
from  twelve  high  schools,  and  lacked  one  of  being  double  the 
largest  class  of  any  other  year.  From  the  first  class  of  1856 
to  the  present  there  have  been  three  hundred  and  seventy-four 
graduates.  Among  them  were  Mrs.  Ellen  K.  Parker  (nee 
Burruss),  wife  of  Bishop  Linus  Parker  and  mother  of  Drs. 
Franklin  and  Fitzgerald  Parker,  of  the  class  of  1857,  and  Mrs. 
Julia  Truett  Bishop,  on  the  staff  of  the  New  Orleans  Times- 
Picayune,  of  the  class  of  1873.  The  last  commencement  was 
honored  by  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Marietta  Williams  (nee  Wood- 
ham),  of  the  class  of  1859,  perhaps  the  oldest  living  grad- 
uate. Time  would  fail  us  to  tell  of  the  other  splendid  women 
who  have  wrought  largely  and  well.  Are  their  names  not  re- 
corded in  the  annals  of  the  college  and  many  in  the  Lamb's 
book  of  life? 

Coronal  Institute. 
Coronal  Institute,  located  at  San  Marcos,  Tex.,  in  one  of  the 
fairest  regions  of  the  Southwest,  is  the  property  of  the  West 
Texas  Conference.  It  was  founded  in  18G8  and  is  the  earliest 
established  of  the  Church's  schools  on  the  Southwestern  bor- 
der. It  is  affiliated  with  Southwestern  University  and  with 
the  higher  schools  of  the  State.  It  is  well  provided  with  build- 
ings— library,  recitation  halls,  and  dormitories.  These  build- 
ings are  supplied  with  all  the  modern  conveniences.  One  of 
its  most  pronounced  features  is  the  religious  atmosphere  which 
pervades  its  life.  It  is  in  the  strictest  sense  a  religious  school, 
and  yet  it  has  provision  for  all  healthy  outdoor  exercises  and 
is  by  its  President  and  faculty  kept  abreast  of  the  intellectual 
and  educational  needs  of  the  day.  Rev.  V.  A.  Godbey,  Ph.D., 
I). I).,  is  the  present  head  of  this  school.  He  is  a  thorough 
scholar  and  a  man  imbued  with  the  highest  ideals  of  edu- 
cation. The  names  of  Pritchett,  Thomas,  and  Fisher  have  pre- 
ceded Dr.  Godbey's  in  the  list  of  Presidents  of  this  institution. 

Martin  College. 
Martin  College  was  founded  in  1870  and  was  named  in  honor 
of  Mr.  Thomas  Martin,  who  left  it  a  permanent  endowment  of 
#30,000.    In  1004  the  old  buildings  were  completely  destroyed 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


528 


by  fire.  In  190G  Martin  Hall,  a  handsome  new  building,  was 
erected  on  the  same  site. 

The  location  of  Martin  College  is  ideal  from  a  physical  stand 
point.  The  thriving  little  city  of  Pulaski,  situated  in  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  is  celebrated  for  the  high 
social,  literary,  and  moral  culture  of  its  people. 

The  steady  growth  of  the  school  during  the  first  six  years 
under  the  present  management  made  necessary  the  erection  of 
a  second  building,  which  contains  thirty-nine  dormitory  rooms, 
twelve  practice  rooms,  studios,  Y.  W.  C.  A.  room,  dining  room, 
parlors,  shower  baths,  etc. 

The  recent  purchase  of  the  Short  property,  adjoining  the 
campus,  gives  an  entire  block  to  the  school.  The  Short  resi- 
dence is  used  as  a  home  for  the  President. 

The  property  is  now  owned  by  the  Tennessee  Conference  and 
is  controlled  by  a  Board  elected  by  that  body.  Since  the  Con- 
ference purchased  the  school,  in  1009,  it  has  been  reorganized 
as  a  junior  college. 

Among  those  who  have  served  as  Presidents  are:  Prof.  W. 
K.  Jones,  Dr.  R.  H.  Rivers,  Professor  Armstrong,  Misses  Hood 
and  Heron,  Misses  Foxworthy  and  Steele,  Dr.  Saunders,  Dr. 
Barker,  Messrs.  Bryan  and  Atkins,  Dr.  B.  F.  Haynes,  Mrs.  J. 
H.  Jennings,  and  Mr.  W.  T.  Wj^nn. 

Meridian  College. 

In  February,  1907,  at  the  Preachers'  Institute  of  the  Gates- 
ville  District,  which  met  in  McGregor,  Tex.,  Rev.  George  F. 
Campbell,  pastor  of  Meridian  Station,  suggested  the  need  of  a 
training  school  for  the  Gatesville  District.  After  some  delib- 
eration, a  motion  was  made  that  the  Chair  appoint  a  committee 
to  draft  a  resolution  expressing  the  sentiment  of  the  body. 
This  committee  was  composed  of  the  following-named  gentle- 
men :  Rev.  George  F.  Campbell,  Rev.  J.  W.  Story,  Rev.  W.  P. 
Garvin,  and  Rev.  Neal  W.  Turner.  These  brethren  prepared  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  the  matter  be  brought  before  the 
various  charges  of  the  district,  and  towns  be  asked  to  compete 
for  the  location  of  the  school.  Upon  due  consideration  by  a  com- 
mittee, which  had  been  authorized  by  the  District  Conference 
in  session  at  Clifton,  Tex.,  in  June,  1907 — of  which  committee 


524 


History  of  Methodism. 


the  presiding  elder,  Rev.  J.  M.  Sherman,  was  chairman — the 
school  was  located  at  Meridian  and  named  the  Meridian  Train- 
ing School,  which  name  was  changed  in  1910  to  Meridian  Col- 
lege. 

In  August,  1907,  Rev.  George  F.  Campbell  was  elected  the 
first  President  of  the  school  and  served  until  July,  1909,  at 
which  time  Prof.  G.  T.  Bludworth,  B.S.,  was  elected  President. 
Professor  Bludworth  served  until  the  close  of  the  session  in 
May,  1911,  at  which  time  Rev.  G.  F.  Winfield,  Ph.D.,  A.M.,  was 
elected  President,  which  position  he  has  held  since  that  time. 

In  June,  1912,  Meridian  College  was  adopted  by  the  Waco 
District  in  conference  assembled  and  thus  became  the  joint 
property  of  the  Gatesville  and  Waco  Districts.  In  May,  1913, 
the  Dublin  District  Conference  adopted  the  school;  and  in 
June,  1913,  the  Cleburne  District  came  into  joint  ownership 
and  control  of  the  institution.  Within  these  four  districts 
there  are  twenty-eight  thousand  members  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  within  a  radius  of  one  hundred 
miles  of  Meridian  one-fourth  of  the  population  of  the  State 
lives. 

The  school  first  opened  its  doors  to  students  in  September, 

1909.  During  the  first  two  years  affiliation  was  secured  with 
Southwestern  University.  In  1912  it  was  affiliated  with  the 
State  University  as  an  academy  and  so  recognized  by  the  Gen- 
eral Board  of  Education  of  the  Church.  In  1911  the  curriculum 
was  raised  to  that  of  a  junior  college,  and  this  was  one  of  the 
first  nine  schools  in  the  entire  Church  to  be  classified  that  year 
by  the  Board  of  Education  as  a  junior  college.    On  July  7, 

1910,  when  the  Committee  on  Classification,  appointed  by  the 
College  Section  of  the  State  Teachers'  Association,  made  its 
first  report  on  the  classification  of  all  the  colleges  of  the  State, 
Meridian  College  received  recognition  as  a  Class  A  junior  col- 
lege and  was  one  of  only  five  in  the  State  to  secure  such  classi 
fication  and  get  credit  for  the  college  science  offered. 

In  1912  the  school's  indebtedness  amounted  to  si>3,000,  at 
which  time,  under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  W.  B.  Wilson,  of  the 
Central  Texas  Conference,  acting  as  financial  agent,  about 
s2r>.000  was  secured  in  good  notes;  and  four  gentlemen  of  the 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


community — namely,  Messrs.  C.  W.  Tidwell,  J.  W.  Rudasill, 
H.  C.  Odle,  and  R.  V.  Ferguson — took  the  notes  in  hand  and 
personally  assumed  the  obligations  of  the  school,  and  thus  set 
it  free  from  debt  to  render  the  best  service  possible  to  the 
Church  and  that  section  of  the  State.  This  act  was  pronounced 
by  Bishop  Atkins  as  one  of  the  most  magnanimous  that  he  had 
ever  known  in  regard  to  one  of  our  schools. 

The  plant  consists  of  a  thirty-five-acre  campus,  two  stone 
buildings  and  two  frame  buildings,  is  worth  f 90,000,  and  is  free 
of  debt.  The  faculty  consists  of  sixteen  college-  and  university- 
trained  Christian  men  and  women,  and  the  student  body  of 
1915-1G  numbered  two  hundred  and  seventy-five. 

Morris  Harvey  College. 

Southern  Methodism  on  the  Northeastern  border  had  for  a 
number  of  years  greatly  felt  the  need  of  a  high-class  educa- 
tional institution.  The  founding  of  Morris  Harvey  College 
was  the  answer  to  this  sense  of  need.  The  school  was  orig- 
inally incorporated  as  the  Barboursville  Seminary  in  May, 
1888.  One  year  later  the  Western  Virginia  Conference  ac- 
cepted it  as  the  beginning  of  its  ideal  of  a  college.  From  that 
time  until  1901  it  was  known  as  Barboursville  College.  In 
that  year  Mr.  Morris  Harvey  made  to  the  school  his  first  gift 
of  |6(),000.  In  recognition  of  this  generosity  the  Board  of 
Trustees  changed  the  name  of  the  school  to  Morris  Harvey 
College.  It  is  well  located  in  the  attractive  little  city  of  Bar- 
boursville. Starting  with  a  substantial  central  building  of  well- 
arranged  appointments,  the  trustees  have  created  an  equip- 
ment which  meets  in  some  happy  way  the  large  demands  of  the 
school's  patronage,  while  the  lively  interest  manifested  in  it 
by  its  friends  and  patrons  is  a  prophecy  of  continued  enlarge- 
ment. It  enjoys  a  good  reputation  and  stands  high  in  the  list 
of  junior  colleges  classified  by  the  General  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. The  Rev.  U.  V.  W.  Darlington,  D.D.,  is  President  and 
also  fills  the  chair  of  Bible  Lecturer.  Dr.  Darlington's  name 
and  his  reputation  for  zeal,  ability,  and  loyalty  are  a  pledge  of 
all  that  the  Church  in  this  strategic  region  could  ask  of  its 
educational  leader. 


526 


//  i  story  of  M  e  t  h  o  d  ism. 


Weaver  College. 

Weaver  College,  located  at  Weaverville,  N.  0.,  has  a  unique 
history.  In  1830  the  Holston  Conference  met  at  this  place 
and  held  its  sessions  in  a  rude  wooden  structure  built  for 
that  purpose.  Until  1854  a  school  was  conducted  under  this 
roof  and  continued  to  grow  until  larger  quarters  were  de- 
manded. A  new  frame  building  was  erected,  called  Temperance 
Hall,  and  from  this  time  a  boarding  department  was  con- 
ducted in  connection  with  the  school.  The  Temperance  Hall 
was  destroyed  by  lire  in  1872,  after  which  a  brick  building 
was  put  up,  and  the  school  was  chartered  as  a  college.  In 
1883  it  was  deeded  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
In  1912  it  was  reorganized  as  a  junior  college,  after  which  the 
legislature  of  North  Carolina  granted  a  charter  enlarging  its 
powers.  The  school  is  eligibly  located  and  wTell  equipped. 
There  are  two  substantial  brick  structures,  the  main  building 
and  the  boys'  dormitory.  These  are  desirably  constructed  and 
well  appointed  throughout. 

Clarendon  College. 

The  crowning  concern  and  chief  adornment  of  the  spirited 
little  city  of  Clarendon,  Tex.,  far  out  in  the  Panhandle,  is  its 
college  of  the  same  name.  This  institution  is  the  property  of 
the  Northwest  Texas  Conference.  It  was  founded  seventeen 
years  ago  through  the  liberality  of  prosperous  laymen  who  have 
large  holdings  in  that  region.  It  is  recognized  as  the  leading 
educational  institution  between  the  cities  of  Forth  Worth  and 
Denver.  Its  work  is  accepted  by  the  State  University  and  by 
other  high-grade  institutions,  such  as  the  University  of  Chica- 
go. Its  outfit  in  buildings  is  good,  the  sum  of  185.000  having 
been  spent  during  the  past  year  in  creating  the  necessary  con- 
ditions for  first-class  junior  college  work.  The  President  in- 
cumbent is  Rev.  George  S.  Slover,  M.A.,  a  student  of  the  Di- 
vinity School  of  Vanderbilt  and  a  graduate  of  Southwestern 
University. 

Andrew  Female  College. 

Andrew  Female  College,  located  at  Cuthbert,  Ga.,  and  under 
the  direct  supervision  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  has  fl 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


527 


long  and  honorable  history.  During  l he  War  between  the 
States  it  was  suspended  for  some  time,  but  was  later  rehabili- 
tated and  has  continued  in  its  path  of  usefulness.  Since  1911- 
12  the  college  has  enjoyed  a  history  of  unprecedented  pros- 
perity. The  site  and  grounds  comprise  twelve  acres  within  the 
limits  of  the  attractive  city  of  Cuthbert.  The  main  building, 
erected  in  1892,  is  an  imposing  structure.  An  annex  was  built 
in  1900.  This  annex  contains  the  classrooms,  the  library,  the 
literary  society  hall,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  hall,  the  art  room,  and 
considerable  dormitory  space.  Cuthbert  Hall  was  built  in 
1912.  This  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  college  plant,  greatly 
increasing  its  dormitory  capacity.  The  college  has  a  gym- 
nasium, a  library,  and  various  student  organizations.  The 
spiritual  advantages  of  the  school  are  superior,  and  its  home 
life  is  ideal.  The  President  is  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Malone,  D.D., 
one  of  the  Church's  most  experienced  educators. 

Centenary  College  of  Louisiana. 

The  history  of  Centenary  College  of  Louisiana  began  in  1839, 
the  centennial  year  of  Methodism,  when  otferings  were  taken  in 
the  Mississippi  Conference  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a 
college  of  high  grade  for  the  education  of  young  men.  The  in- 
stitution was  to  be  known  as  Centenary  College.  A  Board  of 
Trustees  was  organized,  with  authority  to  choose  a  location  for 
the  college.  Liberal  inducements  were  offered  by  the  citizens 
of  Clinton,  Miss. ;  but  a  bare  quorum  of  the  Board,  in  1841,  se- 
lected Brandon  Springs,  a  choice  which  in  a  short  time  proved 
to  be  very  ill  advised.  Subsequently  the  Baptists  accepted  the 
Clinton  offer  and  have  a  strong  institution  at  that  place. 

In  1845  the  college  was  moved  to  Jackson,  La.,  the  trustees 
having  acquired  the  property  of  an  unsuccessful  State  enter- 
prise, known  as  the  College  of  Louisiana.  A  very  liberal  charter 
of  incorporation  was  granted,  which  empowered  the  trustees  to 
confer  such  degrees  as  are  usually  bestowed  by  any  university, 
college,  or  seminary  of  learning  in  the  United  States.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  a  noteworthy  chapter  of  educational  his- 
tory in  the  Methodism  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  In  1857  a 
stately  central  building  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  f  00,000,  whose 


52S 


History  of  Methodism. 


great  audience  hall,  surmounted  by  a  massive  dome  supported 
by  classic  columns,  had  perhaps  no  equal  in  the  South. 

During  the  ante-bellum  period  Centenary  College  maintained 
a  place  of  commanding  influence  in  a  large  territory,  and  from 
its  hall  went  forth  men  of  distinction  in  both  Church  and 
State. 

The  War  between  the  States  seriously  interrupted  the  work 
of  the  college,  and  during  the  Reconstruction  period,  when  the 
whole  South  was  financially  impoverished,  the  salvation  of  the 
school  was  almost  entirely  due  to  the  personal  work  of  Bish- 
op John  C.  Keener,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  who 
furnished  a  conveyance  at  his  own  expense  and  by  canvassing 
a  large  part  of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  secured  820,000  with 
which  to  tide  over  the  crisis. 

After  the  founding  of  Millsaps  College,  in  1892,  and  with 
changed  conditions  brought  about  by  the  advent  of  railroads, 
it  became  increasingly  evident  from  year  to  year  that  it  would 
be  well-nigh  impossible  for  the  Louisiana  Conference  alone  to 
maintain  the  school  permanently  in  Jackson. 

In  the  year  1004  a  proposition  was  made  to  the  Louisiana 
Annual  Conference  by  the  Shreveport  Progressive  League  to 
move  Centenary  College  to  Shreveport,  and  after  negotiations 
the  offer  was  accepted  by  a  Conference  commission,  of  which 
Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison  was  chairman.  A  splendid  site  of 
thirty-six  acres  in  the  corporate  limits  of  the  city  was  chosen, 
which  offers  everything  in  the  way  of  natural  and  commercial 
advantage  for  the  future  development  of  the  college. 

The  doors  of  the  institution  in  its  new  location  were  opened 
in  1908.  As  the  result  of  litigation  over  the  matter  of  removal 
and  other  complications,  nothing  has  yet  been  realized  from  the 
old  property  in  Jackson;  and  the  Louisiana  Conference,  facing 
many  difficulties,  is  now  engaged  in  a  strenuous  effort  to  endow 
and  equip  the  school. 

The  following  Presidents  served  from  1811  to  1905,  the  year 
the  institution  closed  its  doors  in  Jackson :  Pew  T.  C.  Thorn- 
ton, D.D.,  Judge  David  O.  Shattuck,  LL.D.,  Pev.  P.  H.  Pivers, 
D.D.,  Pev.  B.  M.  Drake,  D.D.,  Rev.  John  C.  Miller,  Pev.  W.  H. 
Watkins,  D.D.,  Rev.  C.  G.  Andrews,  D.D.,  Rev.  D.  M.  Push, 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


529 


Rev.  T.  A.  S.  Adams,  D.D.,  Prof.  George  H.  Wiley,  pro  tern., 
Rev.  W.  L.  C.  Huimicutt,  D.D.,  Rev.  C.  W.  Carter,  D.D.,  Rev.  I. 
W.  Cooper,  D.D.,  Rev.  H.  B.  Carr6,  Ph.D.,  and  Rev.  C.  C.  Mil- 
ler. The  following  Presidents  have  served  since  1908:  W.  L. 
Weber,  Ph.D.,  Rev.  Felix  R.  Hill,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  R.  H.  Wynn, 
D.D. 

Davenport  College. 

The  history  of  Davenport  College  goes  hack  to  the  year  1855, 
when  a  public  collection  amounting  to  about  f 12,000  was  taken 
at  Center  Camp  Meeting  for  the  purpose  of  its  founding.  In 
1875  the  institution  was  formally  placed  under  the  control  of 
the  North  Carolina  Conference.  In  1859  it  had  been  regularly 
chartered  by  the  legislature  of  North  Carolina.  The  school 
had  reached  a  high  state  of  usefulness  in  1877,  when  its  prop- 
erty was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  it  was  not  until  1899  that  its 
equipment  was  completely  restored.  About  1902  Dr.  Charles 
C.  Weaver,  now  the  President  of  Emory  and  Henry  College, 
was  put  at  the  head  of  Davenport  College,  and  the  history  of 
its  real  prosperity  began.  The  main  building  is  a  brick  struc- 
ture, containing  offices,  parlors,  library,  infirmary,  music  and 
art  studios,  and  dormitory  rooms.  An  extensive  annex  to 
this  building  was  erected  in  1906.  Cornelius  Hall,  completed 
in  1914,  was  the  gift  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Cornelius,  of  Davidson.  It 
is  described  as  the  best-built  and  best-equipped  dormitory  build- 
ing in  Western  North  Carolina.  The  location  of  the  school,  in 
the  famous  highland  region  of  the  State,  is  unsurpassed  for 
beauty  of  outlook  and  for  healthfulness.  Rev.  James  Braxton 
Craven,  D.D.,  is  the  President.  His  name  is  a  savor  and 
pledge  of  faithfulness  in  Christian  education. 

Grenada  College. 
This  excellent  property,  located  in  Grenada,  Miss.,  was  set 
aside  and  buildings  erected  thereon  for  school  purposes  in  the 
early  fifties.  In  1882  it  was  purchased  by  the  North  Missis- 
sippi Conference  and  chartered  under  the  name  of  "Grenada 
Collegiate  Institute,"  Rev.  T.  J.  Newell,  A.M.,  D.D.,  President. 
Since  that  time  it  has  been  the  only  Conference  school  for  girls, 
and  it  is  the  only  piece  of  property  ever  owned  and  controlled 
entirely  by  the  Conference.  In  1904  the  charter  was  amended 
34 


530 


History  of  Method  is  m. 


and  the  name  changed  to  Grenada  College,  since  which  time 
the  standards  have  been  greatly  advanced  and  the  faculty 
doubled. 

The  campus  consists  of  eight  acres,  well  laid  out  and  beau- 
tifully shaded  by  magnificent  native  oaks.  There  are  two  brick 
buildings  and  a  frame  dormitory,  with  two  cottages,  on  the 
grounds.  The  property  is  valued  at  $100,000.  The  college  lit- 
erary work  is  done  by  a  faculty  of  six  members,  besides  the 
President,  and  the  usual  special  departments  are  maintained 
with  high  standards.  A  preparatory  school  is  also  operated 
under  the  same  management.  Every  effort  is  made  to  combine 
the  atmosphere  of  a  refined  Christian  home  with  the  earnest 
work  necessary  to  the  development  of  efficient  mentality.  Rev. 
J.  R.  Countiss  is  President,  and  Rev.  B.  P.  Jacc  is  commission- 
er appointed  to  raise  850,000  for  the  school.  The  administra- 
tion of  President  Countiss  and  his  assistants  has  been  highly 
satisfactory,  and  the  college  lias  greatly  prospered. 

Henderson-Brown  College. 

In  April,  1889,  the  citizens  of  Arkadelphia,  Ark.,  invited  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Little  Rock  Con- 
ference to  an  interview,  at  which  time  a  proffer  was  made  to 
them  for  the  Church  of  a  building  worth  $30,000  and  sufficient 
land  as  a  college  site,  upon  condition  that  the  Conference 
should  establish  and  maintain  a  coeducational  institution  at 
that  place,  the  property  to  become  that  of  the  Conference  in 
fee  simple.  The  Board  of  Education  reported  favorably  on 
this,  and  in  1800  the  institution  was  chartered  under  the  name 
of  Arkadelphia  Methodist  College  (later  given  its  present  name, 
Henderson-Brown  College).  It  opened  in  September  of  the 
same  year  with  Dr.  G.  C.  Jones  as  President,  who  served 
continuously  until  June,  1807,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  the 
Rev.  Cadesman  Pope,  who  filled  the  office  for  two  consecutive 
years.  Dr.  Jones  then  returned  to  the  presidency  ami  re- 
mained until  June,  1004.  Prof.  J.  H.  Hinemon  was  assigned  to 
this  responsibility  and  continued  in  office  for  several  years,  his 
successor  being  Rev.  George  H.  Crowell.  In  1915  Rev.  J.  M. 
Workman,  the  present  efficient  and  wide-awake  head  of  the 
school,  was  called  from  the  pastorate  and  appointed  by  the  pre- 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


531 


siding  bishop.  In  1914  the  property  of  the  college  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  a  calamity  which  has  overtaken  so  many  of  our 
institutions  of  learning.  But  this  great  loss,  together  with 
numberless  other  difficulties,  lias  been  successfully  overcome, 
and  the  future  of  the  school  is  well  secured.  It  has  good  build- 
ings and  an  advantageous  location. 

Lander  College. 

Lander  College,  situated  at  Greenwood,  S.  C,  is  owned  and 
controlled  by  the  two  Conferences  in  South  Carolina  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  The  General  Board  of 
Education,  after  careful  investigation,  rated  this  as  a  Class  A 
college  for  women.  The  President  in  charge,  Rev.  John  O. 
Willson,  D.I).,  succeeded  the  first  President  of  the  school,  Rev. 
Samuel  Lander,  A.M.,  D.D.  The  first  faculty  was  composed  of 
seven  members;  that  for  1916-17  has  thirteen  officers  and 
twenty-two  teachers  (three  of  the  officials  also  teach).  Eight 
teachers  are  occupied  solely  in  college  work,  two  have  both  col- 
lege and  preparatory  classes,  and  the  remaining  twelve  serve 
college  and  preparatory  students  in  the  departments  of  mu- 
sic, art,  domestic  science,  millinery,  sewing,  and  stenography. 
In  the  student  body  of  1915-16  were  1  postgraduate,  26  sen- 
iors, 21  juniors,  23  sophomores,  64  freshmen,  50  in  the  prepara- 
tory department,  and  48  specials,  making  a  total  of  233.  In- 
cluding the  graduating  class  of  1916,  the  number  of  graduates 
amounted  to  388.  Further,  2,194  girls  and  young  women  have 
attended  the  school,  but  did  not  graduate. 

The  first  home  of  the  college  was  in  Williamston,  S.  C,  and 
the  property  there  was  valued  at  about  f 15,000.  The  present 
property  is  valued  as  follows:  Grounds  (23.3  acres),  $46,750; 
three  connected  buildings,  $92,000;  cottage  for  servant,  $500; 
heating  plant,  $7,900;  apparatus,  $2,550;  museum,  $1,000;  li- 
brary of  6,041  volumes,  $5,280;  musical  instruments,  $4,200; 
furniture,  $9,050;  loan  funds  and  endowment,  $13,992 — making 
a  total  of  $183,222.  The  campus  is  beautiful,  the  buildings 
comfortable  and  handsome.  The  atmosphere  is  refined  and  re- 
ligious. High  ideals  are  honestly  inculcated,  thorough  learn- 
ing is  required,  and  modest  womanliness  is  enforced. 

The  college  was  founded  at  Williamston,  S.  C,  on  February 


532 


History  of  Methodism. 


12,  1872,  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Samuel  Lander.  He  was  a  born 
teacher  of  rare  scholarship,  and  she  was  a  genuine  school 
mother  of  gracious  and  winsome  characteristics.  Together 
they  made  a  school  of  rich  opportunities  and  influence.  Dr. 
Lander  inaugurated  several  features  not  common  to  colleges. 
First,  observing  deficiencies  of  matriculates  in  elementary 
branches,  then  and  now  almost  the  rule,  he  added  to  his  course 
of  study  continued  reviews  of  arithmetic,  English  grammar, 
reading,  writing,  spelling,  geography,  and  the  like.  Next,  he 
introduced  a  concentrated  study  system  (erroneously  called 
uthe  one-study  plan") .  This  means  that  for  a  section  the  school 
would  study  mathematics,  with  arithmetic  review;  English, 
with  history  review;  science,  with  geography  review;  and  lan- 
guages, with  English  grammar  review.  Spelling,  reading,  etc., 
went  on  all  the  year.  The  result  was  more  accurate  teaching, 
easier  learning,  and  more  rapid  advancement.  These  sensible 
features,  a  little  modified,  continue  to  this  day.  The  results 
are  further  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  graduates  have  filled  high 
and  modest  places  with  marked  credit — in  a  governor's  man- 
sion or  a  rural  cottage,  in  missionary  service  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  college  chairs  and  country  schools,  wherever  a 
woman's  life  might  lead. 

The  school  was  chartered  under  the  name  of  the  Williamston 
Female  College  in  1873.  In  1905,  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  State  of  South  Carolina,  it  was  changed  to  the  name  of 
Lander  College,  in  honor  of  its  founder. 

In  1903  Greenwood  made  an  offer  of  more  land  and  better 
buildings  than  the  college  had  at  Williamston  on  condition 
that  it  be  moved  to  that  town,  and  the  offer  was  accepted  by 
Dr.  Lander  and  his  trustees.  Greenwood  did  more  than  she 
promised,  and  the  school  was  opened  in  its  present  home  on 
September  27,  1904.  Dr.  Lander  died  July  14,  1904;  and  Dr. 
John  O.  Willson  was  elected  his  successor,  and  it  became  his 
duty  to  develop  the  institution.  He  has  done  this  with  the  val- 
uable assistance  of  Mrs.  Willson  (a  daughter  of  Dr.  Lander), 
of  her  mother  (until  December  2,  1914  ),  and  for  a  few  years  of 
Dr.  W.  T.  Lander.  The  college  has  always  secured  competent 
and  faithful  faculties,  some  members  reaching  high  distinction. 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism.  533 


Lauder  College  to-day  is  an  institution  of  distinct  influence 
for  good  in  Church  and  State  and  is  growing  stronger  every 
year.  Its  aim,  its  officials  declare,  is  not  to  strive  for  great 
numbers  (yet  its  enrollment  increases  steadily),  but  for  ever- 
advancing  standards,  better  work,  more  efficient  and  excellent 
graduates,  a  truer  and  more  faithful  service  to  the  community, 
to  our  State  and  country,  to  the  Church,  and  to  God. 

Louisburg  Female  College. 
The  history  of  Louisburg  Female  College  goes  back  to  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  1778,  the  year  following  the  close  of  the 
War  of  the  Revolution,  the  County  of  Franklin,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, was  formed.  Three  commissioners  were  appointed  to  lo- 
cate a  county  seat.  One  hundred  acres  at  the  fords  of  the  Tar 
River  were  purchased  for  this  purpose,  and  the  place  was  named 
Louisburg.  Twelve  acres  of  ground  were  set  apart  for  educa- 
tional purposes,  and  very  soon  thereafter  a  building  was  erected 
upon  the  tract  and  a  school  known  as  Franklin  Academy  was 
begun.  In  1786  a  charter  was  procured.  In  1802  the  charter 
was  renewed  as  the  Louisburg  Female  Seminary.  The  original 
building,  now  one  hundred  and  fourteen  years  old,  is  used  by 
the  college  as  a  kitchen  for  the  cooking  school.  The  old  chapel, 
of  equal  date,  has  been  converted  into  an  art  studio.  In  1855 
a  third  charter  was  procured,  the  equipment  of  the  school  en- 
larged, and  the  name  changed  to  Louisburg  Female  College. 
About  1900  the  property  was  purchased  by  the  Washington 
Duke  family  and  presented  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 
It  is  now  a  Conference  school  with  the  rank  of  a  junior  college. 
The  school  has  the  usual  college  equipments  of  library,  literary 
societies,  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  athletics,  and  a  preparatory  department. 
It  also  has  a  valuable  endowment  of  scholarship  and  loan  fund. 
Mrs.  Ivey  Allen  is  President,  with  a  full  corps  of  efficient  lady 
teachers. 

Carolina  College. 

In  the  year  1911  there  was  established  at  Maxton,  N.  C,  a 
literary  school  known  as  Carolina  College.  It  is  an  institu- 
tion with  a  worthy  ideal  and  represents  much  and  heroic  ef- 
fort. The  administration  building  is  described  as  "one  of  the 
largest,  most  convenient  and  beautiful  female  college  buildings 


534 


J I  la  lory  of  Methodism. 


in  Southern  Methodism."  It  is  constructed  of  red  pressed  brick 
and  gray  stone  throughout.  Plans  and  specifications  are  in 
hand  for  two  brick  dormitories  to  be  built  on  each  wing  of  the 
administration  building.  Its  plan  is  also  to  erect  one  new  resi 
dence  building  each  year  for  the  use  of  its  students  who  desire 
to  board  on  the  cooperative  plan.  It  has  literary  societies, 
library  and  reading  rooms,  gymnasium,  chemical  laboratory,  a 
domestic  science  hall,  and  a  normal  course.  For  the  further 
enlargement  of  the  college  equipment,  the  Board  of  Trustees 
has  voted  to  sell  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  bonds.  Rev. 
S.  E.  Mercer,  a  graduate  of  Trinity  College,  is  President. 

Marvin  College. 

Marvin  College,  at  Fredericktown,  Mo.,  is  the  property  of  the 
St.  Louis  Conference.  It  was  enterprised  in  1804.  The  admin- 
istration building  consists  of  six  large  and  two  small  recitation 
rooms,  four  music  rooms,  a  reception  hall,  library,  the  Presi- 
dent's office,  and  a  number  of  classrooms.  The  campus  com- 
prises fifteen  acres  and  is  beautifully  situated  in  a  rich  and 
growing  section  of  the  State.  Other  buildings  than  the  ad- 
ministration building  are:  Young  Ladies'  Home,  a  handsome 
and  commodious  structure  for  the  accommodation  of  young  lady 
pupils;  Charles  F.  Lee  Hall,  which  is  the  boys'  home;  the  audi- 
torium,sa  fine  building  erected  at  a  cost  of  #20,000 ;  and  the  col- 
lege gymnasium.  The  college  also  maintains  a  natural  history 
and  geology  museum,  a  library,  and  other  appurtenances. 

Memphis  Conference  Female  Institute. 

The  Memphis  Conference  Female  Institute,  located  at  Jack- 
son, Tenn.,  ranks  amongst  the  oldest  female  colleges  of  the 
South.  Perhaps  only  two  schools  of  its  class  in  the  line  of 
female  education  were  established  earlier.  The  Wesleyan  Fe- 
male College,  of  Georgia,  and  the  Port  Gibson  Female  College, 
in  Mississippi,  are  certainly  older.  The  Memphis  Conference 
Female  Institute  was  chartered  in  the  year  1843,  the  school 
having  had  a  previous  existence  of  three  or  four  years.  The 
first  President  of  the  Institute  was  the  Rev.  Lorenzo  Lee,  of 
Virginia.  During  his  administration  Dr.  A.  W.  Jones,  whose 
name  is  historically  identified  with  the  institution,  was  Pro- 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


535 


lessor  of  Mathematics  and  the  Classic  Languages.  On  the  re- 
tirement of  Dr.  Lee,  some  two  years  later,  Dr.  Jones  was  elected 
to  the  presidency  and  was  also  the  manager  of  the  business 
affairs  of  the  school.  For  forty-seven  years  Dr.  Jones  served  in 
this  double  capacity,  giving  to  the  Institute  in  greatest  part  its 
long  and  honorable  record. 

Dr.  Jones's  work  was  begun  and  continued  under  many  dis- 
advantages, but  during  his  administration  a  large  and  com- 
modious building  was  added  to  the  original  dormitory.  The 
alumna?  of  the  Memphis  Conference  Female  Institute  have  in- 
cluded many  of  the  noble  mothers  and  distinguished  women 
of  the  South  during  the  last  three-quarters  of  a  century.  Suc- 
ceeding Dr.  Jones,  the  following-named  gentlemen  have  been 
Presidents  of  the  Institute — viz. :  Dr.  Howard  Key,  Rev.  A.  B. 
Jones,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Rev.  S.  A.  Steel,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  H.  G.  Haw- 
kins, A.B. 

North  Texas  Female  College. 

No  school  within  the  territory  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South 
has  enjoyed  a  happier  reputation,  nor  has  any  known  a  more 
certain  prosperity,  than  the  North  Texas  Female  College,  lo- 
cated at  Sherman,  Tex.  Mrs.  Bishop  Key*  has  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  been  the  efficient  and  inspiring  head  of 
that  interesting  institution.  The  North  Texas  Female  College 
was  chartered  in  1887  as  the  property  of  the  North  Texas 
Conference.  Although  a  denominational  school,  it  has  always 
been  broadly  Christian  and  never  narrowly  sectarian.  The 
feature  of  the  college  which  has  given  to  it  its  exceptional 
history  is  the  Kidd-Key  Conservatory  of  Music.  It  is  pro- 
nounced to  be  one  of  the  very  best  equipped  schools  of  music  in 
the  whole  South.  During  the  presidency  of  Mrs.  Key  a  number 
of  commodious  buildings  have  been  added  to  the  college's 
equipment,  so  that  now  the  very  large  number  of  students  re- 
porting every  year  are  housed  and  cared  for  in  the  greatest  com- 
fort. The  school  has  a  library  of  two  thousand  well-selected 
volumes.  It  has  a  fine  refracting  telescope,  an  excellent  chem- 
ical laboratory,  and  other  college  requirements. 


Mrs.  Key  died  September  13,  1916. 


53G 


History  of  Methodism. 


Port  Gibson  Female  College. 

One  of  the  very  old  educational  institutions  of  Southern 
Methodism  is  the  Port  Gibson  Female  College,  located  at  Port 
Gibson,  Miss.  It  was  founded  in  1843  by  a  few  friends  of 
higher  education.  Soon  after  this  it  was  formally  donated 
to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  a  short  interruption  during  the  War  between  the  States, 
the  sessions  of  this  college  have  been  continuous  down  to  the 
present.  The  campus  consists  of  an  entire  block  in  a  quiet 
part  of  the  beautiful  little  city.  The  college  buildings  are  two 
brick  structures  and  two  frame  structures,  each  two  stories 
high.  The  alumnae  of  Port  Gibson  Female  College  reach  down 
through  the  history  of  the  old  and  aristocratic  families  of  the 
Mississippi  Delta.  In  its  lists  may  be  read  the  names  of  many 
of  the  distinguished  dames  who  were  the  wives  and  mothers  of 
a  classic  and  heroic  time.  In  its  announcement  the  college  has 
called  attention  to  several  places  of  interest  within  easy  reach 
of  its  halls.  For  instance,  the  birthplace  and  home  of  Irwin 
Russell,  the  dialect  poet  of  the  South;  the  grave  of  Bowie;  and 
La  Cache,  the  country  home  of  Blennerhasset,  where  he  en- 
tertained Aaron  Burr.  Rev.  J.  T.  O'Neill,  former  successful 
pastor  of  the  Mississippi  Conference  and  a  man  of  solid  ac- 
complishments, is  the  President. 

Reinhardt  College. 
Reinhardt  College,  at  Waleska,  Ga.,  belongs  in  the  same  class 
as  Young  Harris  College,  and  what  is  said  of  one  may  well  be 
said  of  the  other.  Reinhardt  College  was  founded  in  1883  and 
was  named  in  honor  of  Capt.  A.  M.  Reinhardt,  to  whose  earnest 
efforts  and  liberal  financial  support  the  school  largely  owes  its 
existence.  The  administration  building  at  Reinhardt  is  a  large 
modern  structure,  with  eleven  lecture  and  recitation  rooms, 
besides  office,  library,  and  music  hall.  The  auditorium  occupies 
one  of  the  upper  floors.  This  hall  is  equipped  throughout  with 
substantial  and  sanitary  furniture.  The  John  W.  Heidt  Hall 
was  erected  by  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society.  It  has 
accommodation  for  forty  girls.  Cherokee  IT  all  gets  its  name 
from  the  county  of  Georgia  from  which  came  the  funds  for  its 
erection.    The  Harriot  Hawkes  Hall  is  the  gift  of  Mr.  A.  K 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism.  537 

Hawkes,  a  liberal  layman  of  Atlanta.  These  halls  are  all  com- 
fortably furnished  and  are  sanitary  throughout.  The  Layne 
Memorial  Cottage  was  built  in  1910  with  funds  furnished  from 
the  Sunday  school  class  of  Mr.  R.  L.  Cray  craft,  of  the  First 
Methodist  Church,  Atlanta.  The  discipline  of  the  school  is  firm, 
quiet,  homelike,  and  tenderly  personal.  The  religious  influences 
are  paramount.  Like  its  prototype,  Young  Harris,  this  school 
has  given  a  number  of  ministers  to  the  Church  and  has  con- 
stantly replenished  the  body  of  its  laity.  Rev.  E.  P.  Clark, 
A.M.,  is  the  President,  having  succeeded  Rev.  R.  C.  Sharp, 
whose  presidency  described  several  years  of  great  prosperity 
in  the  school's  history. 

San  Antonio  Female  College. 

In  the  year  1890,  while  Dr.  W.  W.  Pinson  was  pastor  of 
Travis  Park  Methodist  Church,  in  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  the  West 
End  Town  Company,  a  very  flourishing  real  estate  company 
of  San  Antonio,  through  its  President,  Gen.  G.  W.  Russ, 
approached  Mr.  J.  S.  Groesbeck,  then  a  leading  member  of 
Travis  Park  Church,  with  a  suggestion  that  the  West  End 
Town  Company  was  intending  to  donate  one  block  of  land,  in 
its  addition  to  the  city,  to  the  Catholics  and  one  to  the  Protes- 
tants. Mr.  Groesbeck  reported  the  matter  to  his  pastor,  Broth- 
er Pinson,  and  urged  him  to  make  immediate  effort  to  secure 
that  property  for  the  building  of  a  Methodist  college  for  wom- 
en. Dr.  Pinson  followed  up  this  suggestion  and  soon  had  a 
Board  of  Trustees  appointed  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  of 
his  charge,  and  this  Board  signed  a  contract  with  the  West 
End  Town  Company  and  received  the  grant  and  gift  of  ground 
for  a  campus  and  about  two  hundred  town  lots.  The  proceeds 
from  the  sale  of  these  lots  were  to  be  used  in  building  and 
maintaining  the  college.  Times  being  very  prosperous,  within 
three  weeks  f 10,000  in  cash  had  been  received  from  sales,  and 
the  outlook  was  exceedingly  bright.  Plans  were  drawn  by  an 
architect,  the  foundation  for  the  great  building  was  begun, 
and  the  corner  stone  was  auspiciously  laid  by  Bishop  Gallo- 
way.  The  |10,000  was  used  in  the  foundation. 

The  words  of  the  eloquent  Bishop  had  hardly  ceased  to  ring 
with  melody  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers  when  the  greatest 


538 


History  of  Methodism. 


financial  crisis  of  this  nation  set  in,  and  necessarily  the  school 
enterprise  collapsed.  As  the  hard  times  grew  harder,  the  pro- 
posed school  would  have  failed  had  not  Dr.  Pinson,  then  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  San  Antonio  District,  relinquished  his  pre- 
siding eldership  and  taken  the  financial  agency  of  the  college. 
When  the  city  and  Methodism  had  lost  faith  in  the  enterprise, 
Dr.  Pinson  induced  Rev.  J.  E.  Harrison,  of  the  Tennessee  Con- 
ference, to  accept  the  presidency  of  the  college  in  posse;  and 
the  two,  with  Miss  Sarah  Walton  as  Principal,  opened  up  the 
college-to-be  in  a  rented  building  and  started  with  twenty- 
eight  day  pupils  and  three  boarding  pupils.  That  was  Sep- 
tember G,  1804.  In  September,  1895,  the  school  moved  into  its 
own  building  (with  a  mortgage  on  it).  A  charter  was  secured 
for  the  institution  in  1896. 

San  Antonio  Female  College  has  had  a  unique  history,  in  that 
it  has  maintained  itself  for  twenty-two  years,  secured  to  the 
Church  property  and  equipment  costing  §150,000  upon  the  basis 
of  the  two  hundred  town  lots  (decreased  in  value  by  the  col- 
lapse of  the  West  End  Town  Company),  assisted  during  the 
twenty-two  years  by  contributions  from  members  of  the  Church 
and  personal  friends  of  the  school  to  the  amount  of  $15,000  and 
an  annual  apportionment  from  the  Conference  Board  of  Edu- 
cation averaging  about  $400  a  year  for  running  expenses.  With 
$35,000  from  lots  and  contributions  together,  the  college  has 
met  the  issue  by  maintaining  itself  and  making  money  enough 
for  the  erection  of  the  present  splendid  building.  To  accom- 
plish this  result  a  sacrifice,  great  and  continued,  has  been 
called  for  from  every  person  taking  any  part  in  the  manage- 
ment or  conduct  of  the  institution  from  the  very  beginning  to 
the  present  time,  and  this  sacrifice  has  been  cheerfully  made. 

The  West  Texas  Annual  Conference,  to  which  the  college  be- 
longs, decided  at  its  last  session  to  raise  the  assessment  for  this 
school  to  $1,500.  There  is  no  endowment.  The  President  of 
this  school  initiated  and  carried  to  assured  success  a  campaign 
for  the  raising  of  an  endowment  for  Southwestern  University, 
the  first  endowment  cf  a  Methodist  institution  of  learning  in 
the  State  cf  Texas. 

By  action  of  the  College  Section  of  the  Texas  State  Teachers' 
Association,  San  Antonio  Female  College  has  been  classed  as 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


539 


an  A-grade  junior  college.   Its  management  lias  been  for  twen- 
ty-two years  under  J.  E.  Harrison  as  President  and  Miss  S;i 
rah  Walton  as  Principal.   The  normal  enrollment  is  about  two 
hundred  for  a  school  year,  half  of  whom  are  boarding  pupils. 

The  college,  from  the  beginning  of  its  career,  has  maintained 
high-grade  schools  of  fine  arts. 

A  distinguished  mark  of  this  Methodist  school  is  its  unvaried 
refusal  to  permit  dancing  of  any  kind  or  to  allow  its  teachers 
or  pupils  to  attend  the  theater. 

SCARRITT-MORRISVILLE   COLLEGE.  ' 

The  Scarritt-Morrisville  College  is  the  resultant  of  the  bring- 
ing together  of  two  older  schools  belonging  to  Missouri  Meth- 
odism— the  Morrisville  College,  located  at  Morrisville,  and  the 
Scarritt  Collegiate  Institute,  located  at  Neosho.  This  coales 
cence  was  brought  about  by  the  action  of  the  Southwest  Mis 
souri  Conference  in  1908.  The  equipment  at  Neosho  was  trans 
ferred  to  Morrisville,  the  property  was  sold,  and  the  proceeds 
added  to  the  funds  of  the  greater  college.  On  the  campus  at 
Morrisville  stands  a  beautiful  dormitory,  called  Scarritt  Hall, 
erected  at  a  cost  of  $15,000,  paid  for  out  of  proceeds  of  the 
sale  of  the  property  at  Neosho.  Scarritt-Morrisville  College 
began  as  the  Southwest  Missouri  High  School  in  1846,  through 
the  labors  of  Rev.  Elijah  Perkins,  presiding  elder  of  the  Spring- 
field District.  His  colaborers  were  Judge  B.  Robertson,  E. 
Headlee,  Esq.,  and  Rev.  J.  Newell.  Later  the  school  was  re- 
located upon  a  more  eligible  site  and  called  Morrisville  Col- 
lege, the  town  which  grew  up  about  it  taking  the  same  name. 
As  Morrisville  College  the  institution  enjoyed  a  long  period  of 
prosperity.  The  present  total  endowment  of  the  school  is  re- 
ported to  be  about  $100,000.  It  has  an  attractive  campus,  with 
a  full  complement  of  buildings.  Dr.  W.  H.  Winton,  who  long 
presided  over  Morrisville  College,  is  President  of  the  consoli- 
dated institution.  Dr.  C.  C.  Woods,  Editor  of  the  St.  Louis 
Christian  Advocate,  was  once  President  of  the  school  at  Neosho, 

Wesley  College. 

Wesley  College  is  located  at  Greenville,  Tex.,  but  it  orig- 
inated in  the  town  of  Terrell  in  the  year  1911.    A  very  liberal 


510 


History  of  Methodism. 


offer  made  by  the  citizens  of  Greenville  secured  the  removal  of 
the  school  to  that  city.  The  college  rejoices  in  a  new  $50,000 
administration  building,  finished  in  1016.  This  building  con- 
tains offices,  library,  laboratory  rooms,  and  a  splendid  audito- 
rium sufficiently  large  to  accommodate  one  thousand  auditors. 
Besides  the  main  building,  there  are  two  large  dormitories  or 
boarding  halls,  modern  and  complete  in  every  particular.  The 
several  laboratories  of  the  college — physical,  chemical,  biolog- 
ical— are  in  keeping  with  the  other  points  of  excellence  in  the 
school.  The  discipline  is  the  best,  and  the  atmosphere  which 
pervades  the  institution  is  highly  moral  and  distinctively  re- 
ligious. Rev.  S.  E.  Green,  A.B.,  is  President  and  also  fills  the 
chair  of  English  and  Latin. 

Stamford  College. 

In  1906,  by  the  joint  action  of  the  Abilene  and  Colorado 
Districts  of  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference,  it  was  determined 
to  project  an  institution  for  higher  Christian  education  within 
the  territory  of  those  districts.  John  R.  Morris,  J.  T.  Gris- 
wold,  S.  J.  Vaughan,  M.  M.  Hudson,  and  J.  A.  Biggs,  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference,  and  Hon.  D.  T. 
Averitt,  of  Aspermont,  Tex.,  were  appointed  a  committee  on 
location,  who,  after  thorough  inquiry,  decided  to  locate  the 
school  at  Stamford.  Rev.  Jerome  Duncan  was  made  head  of 
the  movement  for  raising  the  funds  necessary  to  build  and 
equip  the  school.  The  success  which  attended  his  efforts  was 
remarkable.  The  town  of  Stamford  gave  about  ^100,000,  of 
which  |65,000  was  in  cash  and  $35,000  in  real  estate.  The 
necessary  buildings  were  erected,  and  the  school  was  opened 
for  its  first  session  in  September,  1007.  Dr.  Duncan  had  been 
made  its  first  President,  with  a  faculty  of  fifteen  members. 
At  first  the  school  was  called  Stamford  Collegiate  Institute, 
but  the  name  was  afterwards  changed  by  Conference  action  to 
Stamford  College  and  recognized  in  the  class  of  junior  col- 
leges. At  the  close  of  three  years  of  successful  work  Dr.  Dun- 
can died,  and  the  presidency  was  conferred  upon  Rev.  J.  T. 
Griswold.  Through  the  disasters  of  a  long  drought  which  fell 
upon  the  country,  and  the  consequent  depression  in  financial 
matters,  the  interests  of  the  school  steadily  declined  during  the 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism, 


541 


next  few  years.  Rev.  W.  K.  Strother  became  President  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  year;  and  while  much  embarrassed  by 
the  school's  debts  and  the  distressed  agricultural  conditions 
of  the  country,  he  had  large  success  in  his  work.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  ninth  year  Rev.  J.  G.  Miller,  presiding  elder  of 
the  district,  took  charge  of  the  school ;  and  under  his  presidency 
the  people  of  Stamford  came  to  the  rescue  and  lifted  from  the 
college  its  financial  embarrassments.  The  year  following  this 
transaction  showed  a  matriculation  of  over  two  hundred  stu- 
dents, and  the  year  proved  a  prosperous  one  in  every  way. 
The  session  of  1916-17  opened  under  the  presidency  of  Rev.  J. 
W.  Hunt,  who  is  described  as  a  man  of  ability,  full  of  zeal  and 
enthusiasm.  The  Methodists  of  that  rich  section  feel  confident 
that  the  future  prosperity  of  their  school  is  assured. 

Whitworth  College. 

Whitworth  College  was  founded  in  1858  by  Rev.  Milton  J. 
Whitworth,  who  made  to  the  Methodist  Church,  for  education- 
al purposes,  a  gift  of  land  and  the  two-story  frame  building 
which  now  bears  the  name  of  Whitworth  Hall.  Rev.  John  P. 
Lee  was  placed  in  charge;  and  the  first  diploma  was  delivered 
in  June,  18G0,  to  Miss  Mollie  Noble,  of  Smith  County,  Miss. 
The  year  following,  four  more  names  were  added  to  the  alum- 
nae roll.  War  clouds  were  now  hanging  heavy,  and  Mr.  Lee 
answered  the  call  of  his  country.  For  a  few  months  during  the 
session  of  1862  Mr.  Crosby  presided  over  the  college ;  but  con- 
tinued work  was  impossible  amid  such  distutrbed  conditions 
as  then  existed  in  that  section,  so  the  doors  were  closed  until 
peace  was  restored. 

When  the  war  was  over,  Whitworth  at  once  opened  its  doors 
to  the  public,  and  Rev.  G.  F.  Thompson  was  placed  in  charge 
and  conducted  its  affairs  for  two  sessions.  In  1867  Rev.  H.  F. 
Johnson  assumed  the  presidency,  and  for  twenty  years  gave  his 
means  and  his  wonderful  personality  toward  the  development 
of  an  institution  worthy  of  the  noble  mission  of  educating  the 
women  of  his  Church.  Under  his  able  administration  the  col- 
lege prospered  almost  phenomenally,  and  every  year  a  class  of 
young  women  went  out  to  bless  the  world  with  the  influence  of 
their  Christian  culture.  Many  of  the  years  of  Dr.  Johnson's  ad- 


542 


History  of  Methodism. 


ministration  were  during  the  darkest  of  the  history  of  the 
South,  yet  he  struggled  on  almost  single-handed  and  erected 
two  substantial  buildings,  now  constituting  a  portion  of  the 
plant  of  the  college,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the  work  that 
is  being  done  by  Whitworth. 

The  broad  policies  adopted  by  this  devoted  pioneer  in  female 
education  have  been  most  courageously  carried  on  by  his  suc- 
cessors: President  Fitzhugh,  Rev.  J.  W.  Chambers,  Dr.  A.  F. 
Watkins,  Rev.  M.  L.  Burton,  Eev.  H.  G.  Hawkins,  and  Dr.  I. 
W.  Cooper.  The  history  of  the  institution  has  been  honorable, 
and  the  contribution  to  Christian  education  in  Mississippi  and 
adjoining  States  has  been  large.  Hundreds  of  cultured  and 
influential  women  delight  to  honor  Whitworth  College  as  their 
Alma  Mater. 

The  present  administrator,  Dr.  I.  W.  Cooper,  has  received 
the  college  as  a  sacred  trust  from  his  predecessors  and  will  fail 
of  no  effort  to  enhance  its  reputation  for  a  high  type  of  wom- 
anhood and  thorough  scholastic  training.  The  most  heplful  de- 
velopment of  mind,  heart,  and  body  for  every  young  woman 
who  enters  those  halls  is  the  standard  set  and  striven  for,  that 
our  daughters  may  fulfill  the  ideal  of  Holy  Writ  and  be  as 
"corner  stones,  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a  palace." 

Whitworth  College  is  located  at  Brookhaven,  Lincoln  Coun- 
ty, Miss.,  on  the  main  line  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  miles  north  of  New  Orleans  and 
tifty-four  miles  south  of  Jackson.  Miss.  In  addition  to  the 
above-named  road,  there  are  others  which  pass  through  the 
city  of  Brookhaven,  the  Mississippi  Central  and  Pearl  River 
routes.  The  college  has  a  beautiful,  retired  location  with  ample 
and  pleasant  grounds  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  depot. 

The  location  of  this  historic  college  is  conducive  to  good 
health.  Pure  water  from  the  artesian  wells  that  furnish  the 
w  ater  supply  of  the  town  is  found  in  abundance  throughout 
the  buildings  and  campus.  There  is  no  local  cause  for  disease. 
An  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  has  never  been  known  through- 
out this  section.  Pupils  who  attend  this  institution  from  the 
mountain  regions  of  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  have 
at  all  times  enjoyed  the  best  of  health.    The  mortality  among 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


543 


the  student  body  for  the  past  twenty  years  has  been  less  than 
one-fourth  of  one  per  cent.  The  elevation,  coupled  with  the 
efforts  of  the  college  authorities  to  obey  strict  sanitary  regula- 
tions, has  doubtless  contributed  largely  to  this  excellent  health 
report.  Brookhaven  has  an  elevation  of  489.5  feet  above  sea 
level. 

Within  the  past  four  years  f 50,000  has  been  expended  for 
improvements.  The  Brown  House  has  been  displaced  by  one 
of  the  most  inviting  dormitories  in  the  South,  known  as  the 
Cooper  Hall.  The  beautiful  Lampton  Auditorium,  erected 
through  the  generosity  of  the  Lampton  brothers,  of  South  Mis- 
sissippi, occupies  a  very  conspicuous  place  on  the  campus  and 
stands  as  a  memorial  to  their  sainted  mother.  The  President's 
home,  erected  recently  through  the  liberality  of  Dr.  I.  W.  Coop- 
er, is  a  very  valuable  addition  to  the  college.  All  the  buildings 
are  kept  thoroughly  renovated  and  furnished  with  every  mod- 
ern convenience.  Concrete  walks  lead  to  all  buildings,  and  this 
within  itself  adds  greatly  to  the  beauty  and  convenience  of  the 
campus.  The  entire  property  valuation  of  the  college  is  f  150, 
000,  with  a  total  indebtedness  of  $8,500  in  July,  1916.  The 
friends  of  the  college  are  hopeful  of  a  large  endowment. 

Whitworth  College  offers  young  ladies  a  course  of  study  on  a 
par  with  the  A-grade  college.  Fourteen  units  are  required  for 
enrollment  in  the  freshman  class.  In  addition  to  the  literary 
work,  Whitworth  College  offers  excellent  courses  in  domestic- 
art,  music,  voice,  art,  bookkeeping,  and  stenography.  Louisiana 
permits  graduates  to  teach  without  examination,  and  within  a 
few  months  this  privilege  will  be  extended  to  those  who  wish 
to  teach  in  Mississippi.  The  total  enrollment  during  the  ses- 
sion of  1915-1 G  was  two  hundred  and  ten  pupils.  Great  prep- 
arations are  under  way  to  increase  the  enrollment,  and  within 
a  reasonable  time  Whitworth  College  will  doubtless  rank  among 
the  most  largely  attended  and  fully  equipped  female  colleges 
in  the  South. 

Young  L.  G.  Harris  College. 

One  of  the  happy  educational  realizations  of  the  Church  has 
been  its  schools  in  the  mountains  and  other  highland  sections 
of  its  territory.    There  has  seemed  to  be  something  in  the  at- 


514 


History  of  Method  ism. 


mosphere  of  mountain  lands  conducive  to  the  spirit  of  industry 
and  activity  in  the  acquisition  of  at  least  a  rudimentary  and 
practical  type  of  education.  Moreover,  the  children  of  the 
native  homes  in  these  highland  regions  have  furnished  to  the 
Church  many  of  its  most  faithful  and  efficient  ministers  and 
loyal  laymen.  Young  L.  G.  Harris  College,  in  North  Georgia, 
was  founded  and  chartered  by  the  State  in  1887  and  was  named 
in  honor  of  the  late  Judge  Young  L.  G.  Harris,  of  Athens.  The 
town  which  has  grown  up  about  the  college  bears  the  same  hon- 
ored name.  The  region  is  one  of  surpassing  beauty,  and  for 
healthfulness  it  is  not  excelled  anywhere  on  the  continent. 
Having  been  adopted  by  the  North  Georgia  Conference  as  one  of 
its  schools,  it  became  at  once  a  powerful  arm  of  service.  Since 
1893  ninety-eight  of  its  graduates  have  entered  the  ministry, 
while  by  far  a  majority  have  become  useful  in  the  lay  ranks  of 
the  Church.  The  college  community,  which  is  really  the  village 
itself,  is  an  ideal  one.  By  special  legislation,  not  only  the  sale 
of  intoxicating  liquors  and  narcotics  is  forbidden,  but  even  the 
sale  of  soft  drinks,  as  offering  the  possibility  of  abuse,  is  pro- 
hibited. The  buildings  of  this  school  consist  of  an  elegant  and 
substantial  two-story  classroom  building,  with  ten  large  reci- 
tation halls  and  dormitory  space,  the  Susan  B.  Harris  Chapel, 
Girls'  Home,  containing  sixty  rooms,  the  Boys'  Dormitory,  and 
the  grammar  school  building,  which  contains  a  hall  for  the  lit- 
erary societies.  The  expense  of  board  and  tuition  in  this  re- 
markable institution  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Co- 
operation and  self-help  have  been  brought  down  to  a  science, 
and  the  impossible  has  been  made  possible  to  boys  and  girls  in 
the  humblest  and  most  primitive  conditions  of  earthly  fortune. 
Rev.  Joseph  A.  Sharp,  A.B.,  is  at  present,  and  has  been  for  a 
number  of  years  past,  the  successful  and  resourceful  President 
of  this  college. 

The  Church  Schools  in  the  Far  West. 

Christian  education  in  the  Far  West  has  had  a  checkered  his- 
tory. The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  has  founded 
schools  at  Sanla  Rosa,  Cal. ;  Corvallis,  Oregon;  Stevensville, 
Mont.;  Artesia,  N.  Mex. ;  and  Milton,  Oregon.  These  schools, 
especially  the  Pacific  Methodist  College  at  Santa  Rosa  and  the 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


545 


Agricultural  College  at  Corvallis,  did  a  splendid  work  in  their 
day  and  left  their  impress  in  living  monuments  in  both  Church 
and  State.  But  all  of  them  have  long  since  died,  except  the 
one  at  Milton. 

In  Oregon,  as  in  California,  Christian  education  began  its 
work  almost  the  same  day  the  Church  was  organized.  The 
first  sermon  preached  in  Oregon  was  by  Rev.  James  C.  Stu- 
art, brother  of  Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  of  Confederate  war  fame. 
This  was  in  the  summer  of  1858.  That  fall  the  Pacific  Con- 
ference sent  to  Oregon  Dr.  Orcenith  Fisher,  a  cultured  and  able 
minister,  for  the  Oregon  District.  Others  were  appointed  with 
him.  Dr.  Fisher  made  his  headquarters  at  Corvallis.  The 
Presbyterians  had  in  Corvallis  a  school  which  ran  for  several 
years.  It  became  involved  in  debt  and  was  sold  at  public  auc- 
tion for  four  thousand  dollars.  Dr.  Fisher  was  the  purchaser. 
He  secured  it  for  the  Church.  The  property  consisted  of  a 
beautiful  block"  in  the  heart  of  the  little  city.  On  this  block 
•was  the  school  building,  a  two-story  frame  structure  of  about  a 
dozen  rooms.  Later  a  similar  building  was  added.  Here  the 
Church  conducted  a  successful  school  for  about  ten  years.  Dr. 
Fisher  remained  in  Oregon  only  two  years  and  returned  to 
California.  In  18G2  an  act  of  Congress  was  passed  authorizing 
each  State  in  the  Union  to  establish  an  agricultural  school. 
The  time  for  the  establishment  of  such  schools  was  limited  to 
six  years.  Oregon  slept  on  her  rights  until  1868,  when,  through 
her  legislature,  the  school  at  Corvallis  was  adopted  as  the 
State  Agricultural  College,  the  State  and  Church  entering  into 
copartnership.  The  Willamette  University,  at  Salem,  was  the 
only  competitor  for  this  honor.  The  President  of  the  Oregon 
Senate,  Hon.  B.  F.  Burch,  was  a  stanch  member  of  the  Church, 
and  through  his  influence  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  was  chosen  to  become  a  partner  with  the  State  in  the 
education  of  its  young  people.  It  was  not  a  happy  alliance 
and  finally  resulted  in  a  lawsuit,  instituted  by  the  Church  for 
the  recovery  of  its  property  rights.  The  Church  lost  the  suit. 
The  State  added  to  the  grounds  and  enlarged  the  buildings  and 
now  (1010)  has  property  valued  at  more  than  $1, 000,000,  with 
3,265  students  enrolled  last  year. 

The  prominent  men  connected  with  the  Church  and  the  school 
35 


546 


History  of  Methodism. 


management  during  this  period  were:  Rev.  J.  W.  Craig  (pre- 
siding elder),  Rev.  D.  C.  McFarland,  Rev.  J.  R.  N.  Bell,  Rev. 
Joseph  Emery,  Hon.  B.  F.  Burch,  and  D.  W.  McCall.  In  1889 
the  State  assumed  full  control.  The  Church  school  at  Cor- 
\;illis  was  strangled  to  death  by  its  friends. 

Columbia  Junior  College,  at  Milton,  Oregon,  was  founded  in 
1900  and  has  had  a  steady  growth.  It  is  now  more  useful  and 
influential  than  at  any  other  time  in  its  history.  The  property 
was  bought  of  the  Adventist  Church  by  the  citizens  of  Milton 
and  presented  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  on 
certain  conditions  that  Avere  promptly  and  fully  met.  The 
property  consisted  of  a  three-story  frame  building,  which  served 
as  a  dormitory  and  classroom  combined,  and  a  one-story,  two- 
room  chapel,  on  a  beautiful  two-acre  campus.  Rev.  J.  C. 
Thomas  was  then  presiding  elder,  and  Rev.  L.  P.  Shearer  was 
Educational  Secretary.  These,  with  Rev.  E.  P.  Green,  pastor 
at  Walla  Walla,  first  began  the  school  agitation.  Rev.  E.  P. 
Green  was  the  leading  spirit  in  it.  It  was  he  who  raised  the 
$2,500  in  Milton  with  which  to  purchase  the  school,  on  condi- 
tion that  the  school  run  for  five  years.  That  same  fall  the 
school  was  ready  to  admit  students  for  the  first  time,  and 
about  one  hundred  were  enrolled.  Thomas  C.  Reese,  A.M.,  was 
the  first  President.  Since  then  the  following  have  served  in 
that  capacity:  W.  C.  Howard,  A.B.,  James  Main  Dixon,  Ph.D., 
Louis  C.  Perry,  A.M.,  A.  H.  Shannon,  A.M.,  R.  J.  Davis,  A.B., 
W.  C.  Howard,  A.B.,  W.  H.  Martin,  Ph.D.,  J.  E.  Crutchfield, 
A.B.,  E.  R.  Naylor,  A.B.,  and  H.  S.  Shangle,  the  present  in- 
cumbent. Rev.  E.  P.  Green  was  the  first  Financial  Secretary. 
His  successor  in  this  office  was  Rev.  George  II.  Gibbs,  who 
raised  a  cash  endowment  of  nearly  $8,000. 

In  the  fall  of  11)10  Rev.  H.  S.  Shangle,  presiding  elder  of  the 
district,  was  appointed  Financial  Secretary  in  place  of  Rev. 
George  H.  Gibbs.  He  was  instructed  by  the  Board  of  Trust  to 
secure,  if  possible,  .^25,000  for  the  construction  of  a  modern 
school  building.  It  looked  like  an  impossible  undertaking,  be- 
cause of  the  limited  constituency  of  the  Church,  but  the  effort 
was  begun  in  prayer  and  faith.  Soon  it  wis  seen  that  XL^.OOO 
was  inadequate,  and  the  Financial  Secretary  set  the  figures 
forward  to  #50,000.    During  the  four  years  following,  and 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


517 


while  he  was  still  presiding  elder,  he  raised  about  $(;o,000  and 
supervised  the  construction  of  the  splendid  main  building 
which  now  ornaments  the  beautiful  campus.  The  old  building 
was  renovated,  removed  to  one  side,  and  converted  into  a  girls' 
dormitory.  The  property  is  now  valued  at  $75,000,  with  an  en- 
dowment of  $20,000.  The  school  was  chartered  by  the  State 
as  Columbia  College,  and  the  full  four  years  of  college  work 
was  attempted.  It  had  also  in  the  beginning  a  preparatory  de- 
partment. In  September,  1908,  the  charter  was  changed,  giv- 
ing it  the  name  of  Columbia  Junior  College.  The  preparatory 
department  was  eliminated,  students  being  accepted  only  after 
completing  the  grammar  school  course.  The  literary  depart- 
ment gives  a  six-year  course,  up  to  the  junior  year  of  the  regu- 
lar college  course.  The  school  is  standardized  acccording  to 
the  requirements  of  the  General  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Education  for  the  United  States.  It  is  cor- 
related with  the  State  University  and  with  other  schools  of 
high  grade.  It  has  six  departments — academic,  commercial, 
home  economics,  elocution,  piano,  stringed  instruments,  and 
voice  culture.  It  is  owned  and  controlled  by  the  East  Colum 
bia  and  Columbia  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  with  the  Montana  as  a  patronizing  Conference. 
Last  year  there  were  enrolled  in  all  departments  one  hundred 
and  eighty-six. 

Dr.  C.  W.  Thomas  is  President  of  the  Board  of  Trust;  Rev. 
S.  E.  Crow,  Vice  President;  Rev.  C.  R.  Howard,  Secretary;  and 
T.  C.  Frazier,  Treasurer.  H.  S.  Shangle  is  President  of  the 
College,  and  E.  R.  Naylor  is  Dean. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Compton,  for  so  many  years  Secretary,  and  M.  V. 
Howard,  President  of  the  Board,  both  now  deceased,  were 
among  the  chief  promoters  of  the  school  in  the  beginning. 

The  aim  of  the  school  has  ever  been  the  development  of  the 
highest  and  best  in  character.  "What  we  want  in  the  State, 
we  must  put  into  our  schools." 

Mission  Schools. 

The  missionaries  of  the  Church  have  found  that  in  all  the 
fields  to  which  their  labors  have  been  given  the  Christian  school 
is  the  most  direct  and  the  most  fruitful  method  of  gospel 


548 


History  of  Methodism. 


propagandism.  It  lias,  therefore,  happened  that  the  history  of 
the  mission  fields  has  been  the  history  of  the  Church's  schools 
therein.  We  propose  to  give  here  a  list  of  the  mission  schools 
and  a  brief  passing  account  of  their  work  and  results. 

The  most  important  mission  school  of  the  Church  is  the 
Sodchow  University,  located  at  Soochow,  China.  Rev.  John  W. 
Cline  is  President  and  is  aided  by  a  teaching  staff  of  nine  for- 
eign and  sixteen  native  teachers.  The  university  has  an  en- 
rollment of  four  hundred  and  forty-six  students.  Its  receipts 
last  year  were  $29,322  in  gold.  It  is  the  head  of  a  corre- 
lated system  of  schools,  beginning  with  day  schools  and  lead- 
ing up  through  three  middle  schools  and  a  Bible  school.  Of 
these  latter,  there  are  at  Shanghai  two  middle  schools  (Rev. 
Charles  W.  Rankin,  Principal  ) ,  with  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  students.  At  Huchow  there  are  three  such  schools  (Rev. 
W.  A.  Estes,  Principal),  with  an  enrollment  of  sixty-eight.  At 
Soochow  and  Sungkiang  there  are  Bible  schools  (Rev.  W.  B. 
Burke,  Principal),  with  an  aggregate  of  forty  students.  At 
Shanghai  there  is  a  law  school,  a  department  of  the  University 
of  Soochow,  of  which  Rev.  Charles  W.  Rankin  is  Dean.  The 
principal  schools  for  girls  in  China  are:  The  McTyeire  School, 
at  Shanghai,  Miss  Helen  Richards,  Principal,  with  336  pupils; 
the  Susan  B.  Wilson  School,  at  Sungkiang,  Miss  Drake,  Prin- 
cipal, enrollment  107;  the  Laura  Haygood  School,  Soochow, 
Miss  Watkins,  Principal,  125  pupils;  the  Davidson  School, 
Soochow,  Miss  Adkinson,  Principal,  1G5  pupils;  the  Virginia 
School,  Huchow,  Miss  Steger,  Principal,  123  pupils.  Also 
there  are  schools  for  Bible  women,  for  women  physicians,  for 
nurses  in  connection  with  the  Mary  Black  Hospital  at  Soo- 
chow, and  for  women,  with  a  total  attendance  of  17.°).  In  ad- 
dition to  all  these  schools,  there  are  fifty-nine  kindergarten 
and  elementary  schools  within  the  China  Mission  Conference, 
reporting  an  aggregate  enrollment  of  2,205. 

The  educational  work  in  Japan  consists  also  of  a  correlated 
system,  with  the  Kwansei  Gakuin  at  the  head.  The  Kwansei 
Gakuin  has  an  academic  department,  foreign  and  Japanese,  a 
theological  department,  a  college  department,  and  a  special 
course  in  lectures.  In  all  these  departments  there  is  a  total 
enrollment  of  836.    The  property  of  the  school  is  valued  at 


Schools  of  Southern  Methodism. 


549 


$2 17,000.  At  Hiroshima  there  is  a  school  for  girls  with  a 
total  student  body  of  834  and  property  valued  at  f  (55,000.  The 
Lambuth  Memorial  Bible  Woman's  School  has  a  property 
valued  at  |3,500.  The  Palmore  Institute  has  an  enrollment 
of  289,  with  property  valued  at  |17,000.  In  addition  to  these 
schools,  there  are  in  Japan  a  number  of  kindergartens  and 
elementary  schools. 

The  principal  school  in  Korea  is  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  at  Seoul,  with  an  attendance  of  about  fifty  students. 
This  school  is  jointly  patronized  by  the  two  Episcopal  Meth- 
odist Churches.  The  Tearson  Memorial  Bible  School  is  also 
a  jointly  patronized  institution,  the  Presbyterians  joining  with 
the  Methodists.  At  Songdo  the  Church  has  a  school  for  boys. 
Rev.  A.  W.  Wasson,  Principal,  with  an  enrollment  of  379. 
The  schools  under  the  Woman's  Board  are:  The  South  Georgia 
Institute,  with  one  hundred  and  three  students;  the  Holston 
Institute,  with  one  hundred  and  six  pupils;  and  the  Lucy  Cun- 
inggim  School,  with  an  enrollment  of  thirty. 

The  school  of  the  General  Board  in  the  Brazil  Mission  Con- 
ference is  Granbery  College,  at  Juiz  de  Fora.  It  has  a  literary, 
a  theological,  a  dental,  and  a  pharmaceutical  department.  The 
enrollment  is  303 ;  Rev.  C.  A.  Long,  Principal.  The  schools  of 
the  Woman's  Board  are:  The  Collegio  Americano,  at  Petropo- 
lis,  with  G9  pupils;  the  college  at  Piracicaba,  with  169  pupils; 
the  Methodist  college  at  Ribeirao  Preto,  with  180  pupils ;  the  Is- 
abella Hendrix  College,  at  Bello  Horizonte,  with  112  pupils. 

The  schools  in  the  South  Brazil  Conference  are:  The  Col- 
lege for  Boys  and  Girls  at  Uruguayana,  with  an  enrollment  of 
140  and  yearly  receipts  of  f 15,255;  the  American  College  for 
Girls  at  Porto  Alegre,  with  75  students. 

The  schools  of  the  General  Board  in  the  Cuba  Mission  are: 
Candler  College,  at  Havana,  Cuba,  Rev.  E.  E.  Clements,  Princi- 
pal, with  158  students;  Pinson  College,  at  Camaguey,  Rev.  B. 
O.  Hill,  Principal,  with  88  students.  The  schools  of  the  Wom- 
an's Board  are:  The  Irene  Toland  College,  at  Matanzas,  Miss 
M.  Belle  Markey,  Principal,  with  an  enrollment  of  89 ;  the  Eliza 
Bowman  College,  at  Cienfuegos,  Miss  Frances  B.  Moling,  Prin- 
cipal. 

In  the  Central  Mexico  Mission  Conference  there  are  two 


550 


History  of  Methodism. 


schools  for  girls:  Mary  Keener  Institute,  Mexico  City,  and  Hie 
Colon  Institute,  at  Guadalajara.  There  are  no  statistics  for 
these  schools  available,  due  to  the  long  prevalence  of  war. 

[n  the  Mexican  Border  Mission  Conference  the  schools  (in 
part)  of  the  General  Board  are:  The  Laurens  Institute,  at 
Monterey;  the  Effie  Edington  Institute,  at  El  Paso;  and  the 
Lydia  Patterson  Institute,  at  El  Paso.  Connected  with  the 
Woman's  Board  are  the  English  College,  at  Saltillo,  and  the 
Palmore  College,  at  Chihuahua.  There  are  other  schools  in 
this  Conference,  but  they  have  been  suspended  under  stress  of 
war. 

In  the  Texas  Mexican  Mission  and  the  Pacific  Mexican  Mis 
sion  there  are  no  schools. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE  WEEKLY  METHODIST  PRESS. 

ELSEWHERE  in  this  history  we  have  given  a  full  account 
of  the  origin  and  expansion  of  the  publishing  concerns 
of  the  Church,  and  have  also  characterized  and  appraised  those 
connectional  publications  issued  from  the  central  Publishing 
House,  at  Nashville,  Tenn. — the  Methodist  Review,  the  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  the  Epworth  Era,  and  the  various  periodicals 
of  the  Sunday  School  Department.  A  powerful  adjunct  of 
the  Church's  arm  of  literary  and  publication  service  is  the 
weekly  press  representing  the  interests  of  particular  Annual 
Conferences.  The  individual  journals  of  this  system  are,  with- 
out exception,  known  by  the  name  of  either  Advocate  or  Meth- 
odist. Of  these  Conference  organs,  there  are  sixteen  in  all, 
designated  in  territorial  order  as  follows:  Baltimore  Southern 
Methodist,  Baltimore,  Md. ;  Baltimore  and  Richmond  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  Richmond,  Va.;  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate, 
Raleigh,  N.  C. ;  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  Greens- 
boro, N.  C. ;  Southern  Christian  Advocate,  Anderson,  S.  C. ; 
Florida  Christian  Advocate,  Lakeland,  Fla. ;  Wesleyan  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  Atlanta,  Ga. ;  Alabama  Christian  Advocate, 
Birmingham,  Ala.;  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  New  Or- 
leans, La.;  Midland  Methodist,  Nashville,  Tenn.;  Methodist 
Advocate,  Sutton,  W.  Va. ;  Central  Methodist,  Lexington,  Ky. ; 
St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate,  St.  Louis,  Mo.;  Arkansas  Meth- 
odist, Little  Rock,  Ark.;  Texas  Christian  Advocate,  Dallas, 
Tex.;  Pacific  Methodist  Advocate,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Raleigh  Christian  Advocate. 

The  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate  was  established  in  1855, 
with  Rev.  R.  T.  Heflin  as  editor.  The  first  number  was  is- 
sued in  January,  185G.  Dr.  Heflin  was  editor  until  1861.  In 
18G0  Rev.  W.  E.  Pell  was  elected  assistant  editor,  and  in  1861, 
on  Dr.  Heflin's  retirement,  he  became  editor.  Early  in  1861  the 
paper  was  suspended  on  account  of  the  war.  Tn  1862  a  joint 
stock  companv  was  formed,  which  took  over  the  management 

(551) 


552 


History  of  Methodism. 


of  the  Advocate,  assumed  its  liabilities,  and  received  its  in- 
come. The  North  Carolina  Conference,  jointly  with  the  com- 
pany, was  to  select  the  editor,  and  Rev.  W.  E.  Pell  was  chosen. 
He  continued  in  this  relation  until  some  time  in  18G5,  when 
the  paper  was  again  suspended.  It  was  reestablished  in  1866, 
with  Rev.  H.  T.  Hudson,  distinguished  as  the  author  of  "Meth- 
odist Armor"  and  other  works,  as  managing  editor.  The  first 
number  was  issued  in  the  spring  of  1867.  The  name  of  the 
paper  was  changed  to  Episcopal  Methodist.  During  the  year 
there  was  a  fire  which  destroyed  the  type  and  fixtures.  That 
the  paper  might  not  be  sold  under  the  hammer,  Dr.  n.  T.  Hud- 
son bought  the  type,  press,  and  office  furniture  and  continued 
as  editor  without  salary.  In  1869  Dr.  J.  B.  Bobbitt  bought  the 
paper  and  became  editor.  The  first  number  was  issued  early 
in  1869.  In  1870  the  name  of  the  paper  was  changed  back  to 
Raleigh  Christian  Advocate.  In  1878  Drs.  W.  T.  Black  and 
F.  L.  Reid  bought  the  property  and  became  the  editors.  They 
jointly  owned  and  edited  the  paper  until  1885,  when  Dr.  F.  L. 
Reid  became  owner  and  editor.  In  1893  Rev.  W.  L.  Grissom 
became  editor  with  Dr.  Reid.  In  1894  the  name  of  the  paper 
was  changed  to  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  under 
the  editorship  of  W.  L.  Grissom  and  H.  M.  Blair.  It  was  the 
organ  of  the  North  Carolina  and  the  Western  North  Carolina 
Conferences.  At  the  end  of  the  year  Rev.  H.  M.  Blair  retired, 
and  Dr.  P.  L.  Groome  took  his  place  as  one  of  the  editors.  In 
1906  Dr.  L.  W.  Crawford,  for  the  Western  North  Carolina 
Conference,  and  Rev.  T.  N.  Ivey,  for  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference, became  editors,  the  stock  being  largely  owned  by  Dr. 
Crawford.  In  1898  the  North  Carolina  Conference  bought  the 
mailing  list  of  its  own  territory  and  good  will  and  reestab- 
lished the  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate  at  Raleigh  and  elected 
T.  N.  Ivey  editor.  The  first  number  was  issued  early  in  1899. 
In  the  meantime  Dr.  L.  W.  Crawford  remained  editor  of  the 
North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate  at  Greensboro. 

Dr.  Ivey  remained  editor  of  the  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate 
until  June,  1910,  when  he  became  editor  of  the  Christian  Ad- 
vocate at  Nashville.  In  1901  Rev.  H.  M.  Blair  became  editor 
of  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate  and  still  holds  that 
position. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


553 


Baltimore  Southern  Methodist. 

The  Baltimore  Southern  Methodist  is  in  its  thirteenth  year 
of  publication,  having  been  begun  by  authority  of  the  Balti- 
more Conference  in  1003.  In  the  minutes  of  the  session  of  1904 
the  name  of  B.  W.  Bond  appears  as  editor  in  chief.  His  in- 
cumbency ended  in  1905,  when  J.  S.  Engle  became  editor  and 
manager,  which  position  he  filled  until  1898,  when  E.  V.  Reges- 
ter  was  chosen  by  the  Conference  as  editor.  Dr.  Regester  gave 
two  full  years  of  service  to  the  paper  and  declined  reelection 
in  1910.  Dr.  C.  D.  Bulla,  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Wesley 
Bible  Class  Department  of  the  Sunday  School  Board,  was  made 
editor.  His  term  of  office  extended  over  about  one  year,  when 
he  was  called  by  the  Sunday  School  Board  to  his  present  re- 
sponsible post.  His  successor  was  Rev.  Carlton  D.  Harris, 
D.D.,  the  present  popular  editor,  who  has  seen  five  years  of 
continuous  service. 

The  journalism  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  has  a  history 
anterior  to  that  of  the  Southern  Methodist.  About  1872  the 
Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist  was  enterprised,  and  the  min- 
utes of  the  Conference  for  1873  and  1874  show  the  name  of  W. 
S.  Baird  as  editor  in  chief.  In  1875  J.  A.  Poisal  became  editor 
and  was  so  reported  in  the  Conference  Minutes.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  paper  was  suspended  and  appears  not  to  have 
been  revived  until  about  1882,  when  the  name  of  Dr.  W.  K. 
Boyle  appears  in  the  Conference  Minutes  as  editor.  His  in- 
cumbency in  office  continued  for  about  eleven  years,  during  the 
latter  of  which  Dr.  S.  K.  Cox  was  associated  with  him  in  the 
conduct  of  the  paper.  Another  suspension  of  publication  oc- 
curred in  1893,  but  the  enterprise  was  again  resuscitated  in 
1894,  with  Dr.  S.  Rogers  as  editor.  In  1895  the  name  of  the  pa- 
per was  changed  to  that  of  Baltimore  Christian  Advocate,  and 
J.  S.  Hutchinson  became  editor.  About  1898  Dr.  James  Can- 
non, Jr.,  editor  of  the  Richmond  Advocate,  purchased  the  sub- 
scription list  of  the  Baltimore  journal  and  consolidated  it  with 
the  paper  at  Richmond,  with  a  view  to  having  a  single  organ  for 
the  two  Conferences.  In  1900  Dr.  C.  K.  Cox  was  made  Balti- 
more Conference  editor  of  the  consolidated  journal  and  con- 
tinued in  this  service  unMl  the  establishment,  in  1894,  of  the 
Baltimore  Southern  Methodist.    In  the  body  of  this  history 


•V)  I 


History  of  Methodism. 


we  have  sketched  at  length  the  editorial  services  of  Drs.  Boyle, 
Cox,  and  Rogers.  Dr.  Bond  is  of  the  blood  of  J.  W.  Bond, 
the  traveling  companion  of  Bishop  Asbury  at  the  time  of  the 
Bishop's  death.  Rev.  J.  8.  Hutchinson  was  a  useful  and  faith- 
ful minister,  proving  himself  an  acceptable  workman  in  what- 
soever post  he  was  called  to  till. 

New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate. 

The  movement  to  establish  a  Christian  journal  and  a  book 
depository  in  New  Orleans  crystallized  into  definite  shape 
when,  on  duly  li).  1850,  a  "Specimen  Number,"  as  a  kind  of 
prospectus  and  means  of  soliciting  subscriptions  and  securing 
indorsement  and  support,  came  from  the  press.  The  leader  in 
this  movement  was  Rev.  Holland  X.  McTyeire,  who  may  be 
called  the  founder  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate. 
The  following  Conferences  cooperated  in  bringing  out  this 
advance  issue:  The  Mississippi  Conference,  represented  by 
William  Winans;  the  Louisiana  Conference,  represented  by 
W.  E.  Doty;  the  Alabama  Conference,  represented  by  J.  Hamil- 
ton ;  and  the  Arkansas  Conference,  represented  by  W.  Moore. 

The  regular  issue  of  the  paper  began  on  Wednesday,  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1851.  Price,  J2.50  per  annum.  It  had  been  accepted 
as  their  official  organ  by  the  Louisiana  and  Alabama  Confer- 
ences. Rev.  H.  X.  McTyeire  was  the  editor.  Tt  was  a  four- 
page  paper,  with  the  pages  very  large. 

The  depository,  which  had  been  in  contemplation  from  the 
beginning,  was  established;  and  the  Advocate  was  removed  to 
its  present  permanent  home,  512  Camp  Street  ( then  112  Campi . 
in  June,  1858,  the  trustees  having  acquired  the  proj>erty. 

Tn  June.  1858,  Dr.  H.  X.  McTyeire  having  been  elected  editor 
of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate,  Rev.  C.  C.  Gillespie  be 
came  his  successor.  In  his  valedictory  when  leaving  the  pa- 
per Dr.  McTyeire  referred  to  this  gifted  young  minister  as  "a 
gentleman  of  fine  taste,  noble  and  virtuous  ambition,  and  tried 
parts,"  and  predicted  that  the  Advocate  would  be  safe  and 
prosperous  in  his  hands. 

The  Advocate  appears  to  have  been  suspended  during  the 
War  between  the  States.  No  information  is  available  as  to 
when  it  ceased  to  be  issued,  etc. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


555 


On  January  20,  1SGG,  the  Advocate  reappeared,  with  Dr. 
John  C.  Keener  as  editor.  It  was  announced  as  the  official 
organ  of  the  Mobile,  Montgomery,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana 
Conferences.  Under  Dr.  Keener's  management  the  Advocate 
became  an  eight-page  paper.   The  price  was  $5  per  annum. 

Upon  the  election  of  Dr.  Keener  to  the  episcopacy,  in  1870, 
Dr.  Linus  Parker  became  editor.  Rev.  R.  J.  Harp,  who  had 
been  very  active  in  securing  the  depository  building,  was  the 
publisher.  During  this  administration  the  day  of  issuing  the 
paper  was  changed  to  Thursday,  and  its  price  was  fixed  at  f 2. 

After  twelve  years  of  efficient  service,  Dr.  Parker  was  elected 
to  the  bishopric  in  1882.  He  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Charles  B. 
Calloway,  who  four  years  later  also  was  chosen  bishop. 

Following  Dr.  Galloway,  Dr.  C.  W.  Carter,  in  June,  1886, 
was  named  as  editor;  Mr.  Hugh  Jamieson  being  the  publisher. 
The  paper  had-  a  stormy  time  financially  during  Dr.  Carter's 
administration.  The  publisher  was  changed  several  times,  Mr. 
Jamieson  being  succeeded  first  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Grant  and  later 
by  Rev.  D.  L.  Mitchell.  The  Advocate,  during  Dr.  Carter's 
term  of  office,  became  the  official  organ  of  the  Louisiana,  Missis- 
sippi, and  North  Mississippi  Conferences.  In  December,  1801, 
Rev.  B.  F.  Lewis  was  made  assistant  to  Dr.  Carter  and  traveled 
for  the  paper,  taking  subscriptions.  He  tried  this  plan  about 
a  year  and  found  it  impracticable.  The  failure  of  the  pub- 
lisher in  June,  1893,  led  to  Dr.  Carter's  resignation,  and  from 
that  time  until  the  succeeding  fall  the  paper  was  edited  and 
published  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Beard,  Chairman  of  the  Publishing 
Committee. 

In  November,  1893,  Dr.  W.  C.  Black  became  editor  and  pub- 
lisher. During  the  year  1900  Rev.  M.  M.  Black  served  as  as- 
sistant editor  under  his  father;  but  he  really  edited  the  paper, 
while  his  father  served  First  Church,  Jackson,  Miss.,  as  pastor. 

In  January,  1901,  Dr.  John  W.  Boswell  became  editor  and 
publisher.  On  November  25,  1905,  Mr.  Charles  O.  Chalmers 
was  chosen  publisher  and  introduced  new  printing  methods 
into  the  office,  and  the  price  of  the  paper  was  reduced  to  $1.50. 
Dr.  Boswell  continued  to  serve  as  editor  until  the  close  of  the 
year  1910,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  R.  A.  Meek,  the 
present  incumbent. 


556 


History  of  Methodism. 


St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate. 

An  initial  number  of  the  St.  Louis  Advocate  was  published 
by  a  committee  of  the  city  pastors  in  1849.  The  regular  pub- 
lication did  not  begin  until  some  months  later.  The  first 
editor  was  B.  T.  Kavanaugh,  1850  to  1852.  Dr.  D.  R.  Mc- 
Anally was  editor  from  1852  to  18G1.  He  was  imprisoned  by 
the  Federal  authorities  for  commenting  on  the  battle  of  Camp 
Jackson,  indicating  the  results  it  foreboded.  In  jail,  he  still 
wrote  for  the  Advocate  and  also  wrote  a  sermon  every  week  to 
be  read  to  his  Church  at  Carondelet.  The  situation  gave  the 
paper  a  larger  circulation,  so  there  was  an  order  suppressing 
its  publication.  To  save  the  property  from  confiscation,  it 
was  sold  to  Rev.  P.  M.  Pinckard  in  18G2  on  agreement  that 
the  Church  might  recover  it  when  the  way  was  open.  He 
published  a  paper  (name  not  remembered)  during  the  war. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  he  engaged  Dr.  McAnally  as  editor, 
and  the  publication  of  the  Advocate  was  resumed.  In  1867 
Mr.  Pinckard  informed  the  Conferences  that  he  was  ready  to 
return  the  Advocate  property  and  that  the  Conferences  should 
make  their  decision  at  once.  The  two  Conferences  appointed 
a  joint  commission  to  act  in  the  premises.  In  18G8  the  de- 
liberations of  the  commission  took  shape  in  a  resolution  to 
form  a  joint  stock  company  with  $50,000  capital  to  purchase 
the  property  and  establish  a  book  and  publishing  company, 
and  Dr.  T.  M.  Finney  was  appointed  agent  to  carry  this  into 
effect.  Meantime  the  Conferences  indorsed  the  work  of  Dr. 
McAnally,  and  he  was  continued  as  editor. 

At  the  session  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference  in  September, 
18G9,  Dr.  Finney  reported  that  the  Southwestern  P>ook  and 
Publishing  Company  had  been  formed  with  a  capital  of  $73,- 
139.75,  that  the  purchase  of  the  Advocate  property  by  the  com- 
pany had  been  effected,  and  that  the  company  had  already  be- 
gun business  with  Logan  D.  Dameron  as  president.  Dr.  T.  M. 
Finney  was  apointed  editor  of  the  Advocate  and  its  price  put 
at  $3  a  year.   The  editor's  salary  was  fixed  at  S2.500. 

Dr.  Finney  engaged  Dr.  Bond,  of  Baltimore,  as  associate 
editor  for  a  year  or  two.  Later  Dr.  Cunningham,  of  Louis- 
ville, was  employed  for  a  while. 

The  Southwestern  Book  and  Publishing  Company  quickly 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


557 


exhausted  its  capital  and  fell  in  debt,  and  Logan  D.  Dameron 
leased  the  property  and  employed  Dr.  McAnally  to  edit  the 
paper.  This  arrangement  was  confirmed  by  the  appointment 
of  Dr.  McAnally  in  1873,  from  which  time  the  paper  was  held 
by  lease  of  Mr.  Dameron,  and  Dr.  McAnally  continued  editor 
till  the  sale  of  the  property  to  Rev.  J.  W.  Lowrance.  During 
Dr.  McAnally's  incumbency  Rev.  C.  D.  N.  Campbell  was  as- 
sistant editor  for  a  time  and  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  E.  M. 
Bounds. 

Within  a  few  months  Rev.  J.  W.  Lowrance  sold  his  interest 
to  Rev.  W.  B.  Palmore,  who  associated  with  him  Rev.  M.  B. 
Chapman,  D.D.,  as  assistant  editor  and  part  owner  for  a  few 
years,  when  the  latter  sold  his  interest  back  to  Dr.  Palmore. 
In  1878  Dr.  C.  C.  Woods  was  appointed  by  Bishop  Candler 
as  assistant  editor.  Later  the  designation  was  "associate," 
which  relation  continued  until  the  death  of  Dr.  Palmore,  July 
5,  1914,  when  his  three-fourths  interest  in  the  property  passed 
by  will  to  the  superannuates,  widows,  and  orphans  of  the  three 
Missouri  Conferences,  in  charge  of  three  commissions.  These 
Conferences  elected  Dr.  Woods  editor  and  manager  and  Rev. 
Dr.  Arthur  Mather  assistant,  which  was  confirmed  by  appoint- 
ment of  the  bishop  at  the  request  of  the  Conferences.  Later 
the  remaining  one-fourth  interest  in  the  property  was  pur- 
chased, and  the  title  is  now  complete. 

The  paper  has  occupied  seven  different  homes  in  its  history. 
The  present  home,  purchased  by  the  Advocate,  has  passed  to  the 
Central  College  for  Women  by  the  will  of  Dr.  Palmore,  but 
will  be  occupied  indefinitely. 

Wesleyan  Christian  Advocate. 

Previous  to  the  year  1878  the  Conferences  in  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  and  Florida  patronized  the  Southern  Christian 
Advocate,  published  first  at  Charleston,  but  during  the  War  be- 
tween the  States  moved  to  Augusta  and  then  to  Macon,  Ga. 
At  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  held  in  the  city  of 
Atlanta  in  1878  the  South  Carolina  Conference  decided  to  es- 
tablish its  own  paper. 

The  delegates  in  the  General  Conference  from  North  and 
South  Georgia  and  the  Florida  Conferences  established  the 


558 


History  of  Methodism. 


Wesley  an  Christian  Advocate  as  their  organ.    Dr.  A.  G.  Hay 
good,  then  President  of  Emory  College,  was  elected  editor,  with 
•J.  \Y.  Burke,  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  assistant  editor 
and  J.  W.  Burke  and  Company,  of  Macon,  publishers. 

Dr.  Haygood  remained  editor  until  the  General  Conference 
of  1882,  doing  the  work  on  the  paper  while  carrying  forward 
the  work  as  President  of  Emory  College.  It  should  be  said 
that  the  Wesleyan  was  claimed  as  the  original  paper,  and 
hence  the  volumes  of  the  paper  are  numbered  from  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate  in  Charleston. 
The  South  Carolina  brethren  claimed  that  the  Southern  was 
the  old  paper,  and  they  retained  the  number  of  volumes  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Southern.  That  is  a  controversy  which  has 
never  been  settled,  and  explains  why  both  the  Southern  and  the 
Wesleyan  have  the  same  number  of  volumes. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  1882  the  delegates  from  the 
North  Georgia,  South  Georgia,  and  Florida  Conferences  elected 
Rev.  W.  II.  Potter,  D.D.,  editor  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Burke  as- 
sistant editor.  J.  YV.  Burke  and  Company  remained  as  pub- 
lishers. This  arrangement  continued  until  during  the  year 
1890,  when,  Dr.  Potter  having  been  chosen  Missionary  Secre- 
tary in  place  of  Rev.  A.  Coke  Smith,  who  resigned,  W.  C. 
Lovett  filled  out  the  unexpired  term  of  the  retiring  editor — 
that  is.  he  tilled  the  editorial  chair  until  the  fall  of  1800.  That 
fall  the  entire  method  of  publishing  the  Wesleyan  was  changed. 
The  Florida  Conference  established  its  own  paper.  The  two 
Georgia  Conferences  elected  a  Board  of  Trustees  for  the  Wes- 
leyan Advocate,  and  the  paper  was  moved  from  Macon  to  At- 
lanta, Ga. ;  and  Rev.  W.  F.  Glenn,  D.D.,  of  the  North  Georgia 
Conference,  was  elected  editor  and  Rev.  T.  T.  Christian,  of  the 
South  Georgia  Conference,  assistant  editor  and  business  man- 
ager; and  the  paper  was  published  by  contract.  The  term  of 
the  editors  was  for  four  years,  and  Drs.  Glenn  and  Christian 
were  reelected  and  remained  in  their  respective  positions  till 
1899,  when  Rev.T.  T.  Christian  died.  Dr.  Glenn  carried  both 
the  editorial  ami  business  management  of  the  paper  till  the 
fall  meeting  of  1899,  when  at  the  sitting  of  the  Board  Dr. 
YV.  F.  Glenn  was  elected  editor  and  W.  C.  Lovett  assistant 
editor  and  business  manager. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


At  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  1900  the  officers 
of  the  Board  were  changed,  and  Dps.  Glenn  and  Lovett  were 
elected  associate  editors  and  business  managers.  At  the  fall 
meeting  of  1901  the  former  offices,  editor  and  assistant  editor 
and  business  manager,  were  restored,  Dr.  Glenn  resigned,  W. 
0.  Lovett  was  chosen  editor,  and  Bev.  J.  W.  Heidt,  of  the 
North  Georgia  Conference,  was  elected  assistant  editor  and 
business  manager. 

Dr.  Heidt  remained  as  assistant  editor  and  business  manager 
until  1900,  when  Dr.  Lovett  was  again  elected  editor;  and  Bev. 
M.  J.  Cofer,  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference,  was  chosen  as- 
sistant editor  and  business  manager,  which  office  he  filled  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  in  July,  1912.  Dr.  Lovett  conducted 
both  the  editorial  and  business  management  of  the  paper  from 
the  death  of  Bev.  M.  J.  Cofer  till  the  fall  meeting  of  the  Board 
in  October.  At  that  meeting  Bev.  B.  F.  Eakes  was  elected  to  fill 
out  the  unexpired  term  of  Bev.  .M.  J.  Cofer.  In  the  fall  of 
1914  Dr.  Lovett  was  again  elected  editor,  and  Bev.  B.  F.  Eakes 
was  elected  assistant  editor  and  business  manager  for  the 
full  term,  wThich  will  expire  in  1918.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  since  the  paper  was  moved  from  Macon  to  Atlanta  W.  C. 
Lovett  has  been  connected  with  it  longer  than  any  other  man, 
except,  perhaps,  Dr.  E.  H.  Meyers. 

If  the  Wesleyan  is  the  legitimate  successor  of  the  Southern, 
which  was  established  in  Charleston,  this  would  be  about  the 
order  of  the  editors  of  the  paper :  Dr.  T.  O.  Summers,  Dr.  W. 
M.  Wightman,  Dr.  E.  H.  Meyers,  Dr.  Milton  F.  Kennedy,  Dr. 
A.  G.  Haygood,  Dr.  W.  H.  Potter,  Dr.  W.  F.  Glenn,  and  Dr. 
W.  C.  Lovett. 

Alabama  Christian  Advocate. 

The  first  number  of  the  Alabama  Christian  Advocate  was 
issued  May  25,  1881.  It  was  a  large  four-page  paper.  In  1887 
the  size  of  the  page  was  decreased  and  the  number  of  pages 
increased  to  eight.  In  the  fall  of  1899  the  size  of  the  page  was 
again  decreased  and  the  number  of  pages  increased  to  sixteen. 
Since  that  time  there  has  been  but  little  change  in  the  form 
of  the  paper. 

The  Advocate  has  been  ably  edited  by  the  following  well- 


500 


Hist  or  jj  of  Methodism. 


known  men,  taking  office  on  the  dates  indicated :  Rev.  A.  S. 
Andrews,  D.D.,  May  25,  1881;  Eev.  J.  W.  Christian,  D.D.,  No- 
vember 16,  1881;  Rev.  J.  W.  Rush,  D.D.,  October  25,  1882; 
Rev.  W.  C.  McCoy,  D.D.,  October  20,  1886 ;  Rev.  J.  M.  Mason, 
D.D.,  December  18,  1S90;  Rev.  Z.  A.  Parker,  D.D.,  October  29, 
1891 ;  Rev.  Thomas  Armstrong,  D.D.,  spring  of  1892 ;  Rev.  H. 
Urquhart,  D.D.,  May  10,  1898;  Rev.  J.  H.  McCoy,  D.D.,  July 
24,  1902;  Rev.  Henry  Trawick,  D.D.,  December  3,  1903;  Rev. 
J.  D.  Ellis,  D.D.,  October  19,  1905 ;  Rev.  J.  S.  Chadwick,  D.D., 
1906;  Rev.  J.  B.  dimming,  D.D.,  August  15,  1910;  Rev.  J.  M. 
Glenn,  December  1,  1912;  Rev.  L.  C.  Branscomb,  January  1, 
1916.  Most  of  these  men  were  leaders  in  their  respective  Con- 
ferences either  before  or  after  their  service  with  the  Advocate. 
One  of  them  is  now  a  much-loved  bishop.  Dr.  Chadwick  is  as- 
sistant editor  of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate. 

The  Alabama  Christian  Advocate  was  established  by  the 
Alabama  and  North  Alabama  Conferences,  and  through  a  joint 
publishing  committee  they  have  always  controlled  the  editor- 
ship and  held  title  to  the  mail  list.  The  earlier  editors  shared 
in  the  financial  responsibilities  of  the  Advocate.  For  a  num- 
ber of  years  all  these  responsibilities  were  assumed  by  some 
publishing  company.  When  Dr.  Hosmer  saved  the  paper  after 
a  publishing  company  had  failed,  the  financial  responsibility 
for  the  Advocate  and  any  debts  incurred  by  it  rested  upon  the 
two  Conferences  until  all  such  responsibility'  was  assumed  by 
the  present  publishing  company. 

The  circulation  of  the  Advocate  has  varied  from  about  three 
thousand  up  to  a  little  over  eleven  thousand.  This  high  figure 
was  not  long  held.  For  a  number  of  years  it  has  averaged  a 
circulation  of  a  little  over  nine  thousand.  It  has  at  present 
a  constituency  of  about  170,000  Church  members  in  the  bounds 
of  its  patronizing  Conferences.  The  Advocate  has  always  tak- 
en an  active  part  in  all  moral  issues  raised  in  its  territory,  and 
its  editors  have  been  unfailingly  definite  and  forcible  in  their 
attacks  upon  wrong.  Especially  has  the  Advocate  had  a  large 
part  in  all  t lie  temperance  conflicts.  To-daj  it  is  an  aggressive 
force  with  a  widening  influence. 

The  following  resolution  was  adopted  in  1878: 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


561 


Whereas  the  late  General  Conference,  by  its  action,  declared  that  the 
Nashville  Christian  Advocate  can  no  longer  be  the  special  organ  of  any 
Annual  Conference;  and  whereas  by  this  action  the  North  Alabama 
Conference  has  been  deprived  of  its  organ — therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  1.  That  this  Conference  invite  the  Alabama  Conference 
to  join  in  the  publication  of  a  paper  at  some  point  in  Alabama,  to  be 
conducted  in  the  interest  of  Methodism  in  the  Alabama  Conferences. 

2.  That  a  committee  be  appointed  by  this  Conference  to  meet  a  like 
committee  from  the  Alabama  Conference;  that  this  joint  committee 
be  given  power  to  start  such  a  paper  and  appoint  an  editor  and  act  as 
a  committee  of  publication  until  the  next  session  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences which  they  represent. 

Provided  they  do  not  involve  either  Conference  in  any  financial 
liabilities.  J.  M.  Boland, 

Anson  West, 
W.  C.  Hearn. 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  this  resolution  the  New  Or- 
leans Christian  Advocate  was  the  Conference  organ  of  the 
Alabama  Conference,  as  it  had  been  for  many  years.  It  had 
attained  considerable  circulation  in  the  bounds  of  the  North 
Alabama  Conference  before  the  negotiations  between  the  two 
Conferences  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  paper  that 
through  the  years  has  been  a  bond  of  union  between  the  two 
Conferences. 

Midland  Methodist. 

The  first  paper  published  in  the  Holston  Conference  was 
started  by  Thomas  Stringfield  and  David  R.  Mc Anally,  begin- 
ning in  1846  under  the  name  of  the  Methodist  Episcopalian, 
until  the  General  Conference  recognized  it  as  an  organ  in  1850, 
when  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Holston  Christian  Advocate. 
The  paper  continued  till  the  death  of  Dr.  Patton,  in  1854,  when 
the  assets  were  transferred  to  the  Nashville  Christian  Advo- 
cate. After  intermittent  newspaper  experiments,  the  Holston 
Methodist  was  started  at  Morristown,  Tenn.,  by  R.  N.  Price 
and  Company  in  1872.  In  1875  the  Holston  Publishing  Com- 
pany was  organized.  The  Holston  Advocate,  published  at  Sed- 
don,  Va.,  by  Rev.  William  Hicks,  was  purchased.  The  Advocate 
was  merged  with  the  Methodist,  and  Dr.  R.  N.  Price  was  elected 
editor.  In  1888  the  Holston  Publishing  Company  sold  out  to 
Richardson,  Paulett,  and  Company;  and  Dr.  Frank  Richard- 
son became  the  editor,  and  the  paper  was  moved  to  Bristol. 
36 


5(52 


History  of  Methodism. 


Later  Rev.  W.  L.  Richardson  bought  the  paper,  and  later  still 
the  ownership  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  O.  W.  Patton,  of 
Knoxville,  the  present  owner.  In  1807  the  Tennessee  Confer- 
ence united  with  the  Holston  Conference,  the  paper  was  moved 
to  Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Midland 
Methodist,  with  Dr.  R.  N.  Price  again  as  editor.  In  1898  Rev. 
J.  A.  Lyons  was  elected  editor,  and  in  1899  Rev.  J.  A.  Burrow, 
D.D.,  succeeded  him.  Eight  years  later  Rev.  T.  C.  Schuler  fol- 
lowed Dr.  Burrow.  After  several  years  Mr.  Schuler  resigned, 
and  Dr.  Burrow  again  became  editor.  The  Midland  is  known 
as  one  of  the  newsiest  of  the  Conference  journals,  and  Dr.  Bur- 
row's editorials  rank  amongst  the  best  in  the  press  of  the  Con- 
nection. The  Memphis  Conference  united  with  the  Holston 
and  Tennessee  Conferences  in  supporting  the  Midland. 

Texas  Christian  Advocate. 

The  history  of  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate  goes  back  to  the 
year  1847.  Rev.  R.  B.  Wells,  of  Brenham,  Tex.,  began  its  pub 
lication  in  the  year  above  named  and  was  both  manager  and 
editor.  Within  the  year  it  changed  hands,  becoming  the  prop- 
erty of  Rev.  Orcenith  Fisher,  a  man  of  renowned  zeal  and  an 
evangelist  inspired  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Dr.  Fisher  moved 
the  paper  to  Houston,  where  it  continued  to  be  issued  for  sev- 
eral years  as  a  private  enterprise.  A  plan  to  establish  a  paper 
under  the  ownership  and  control  of  the  Conference  was  later 
put  on  foot  and  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  Texas  Wes- 
leyan  Banner,  with  Rev.  Chauncey  Richardson  as  editor.  Ac- 
cording to  Dr.  J.  H.  McLean,  from  whose  sketch  this  informa- 
tion is  gleaned,  the  first  number  of  the  Banner  appeared  about 
February,  1849.  Richardson,  as  did  Fisher,  ranked  high  as  a 
writer  and  preacher  and  was  a  man  of  fine  literary  ability.  In 
1851  Dr.  Richardson  was  succeeded  in  the  editorship  of  the 
Banner-  by  George  Rottenstein,  who,  after  two  or  three  years, 
was  followed  by  Rev,  Simeon  D.  Cameron.  Editor  Cameron 
died  of  yellow  fever  soon  after  entering  upon  the  discharge  of 
this  task.  At  his  death  J.  A.  Hancock  assumed  both  the  edi- 
torial and  managerial  duties  of  the  Banner.  The  General  Con 
ferenee  of  1854  took  up  the  matter  of  publishing  a  paper  in  the 
Southwest,  and  1he  name  was  changed  from  Tr.ras  Wesleyan 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


Banner  to  that  of  Texas  Christian  Advocate,  and  its  office  of 
publication  was  fixed  at  Galveston,  with  Rev.  C.  C.  Gillespie 
as  editor.  Mr.  Gillespie  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents, 
a  speaker  of 'astonishing  eloquence,  and  of  most  magnetic  pres- 
ence and  personality.  After  the  War  between  the  States  he 
entered  politics  and  suffered  a  sad  spiritual  eclipse  which  con- 
tinned  to  the  time  of  his  death.  In  1855  the  Advocate  reported 
two  thousand  subscribers.  At  the  General  Conference  of  185S 
Rev.  J.  E.  Carnes,  also  a  man  of  unusual  talents,  was  made 
editor,  with  Rev.  James  W.  Shipman  as  publisher.  Mr.  Charles 
Shearn,  of  Houston,  and  Mr.  David  Ayers,  of  Galveston,  ma- 
terially aided  at  this  time  in  carrying  the  finances  of  the  paper. 

During  the  War  between  the  States  the  publication  of  the 
Advocate  was  interrupted  and  for  a  while  suspended.  For 
.some  time,  about  1804,  it  was  published  as  a  half  sheet  at 
Houston,  Galveston  being  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Federal 
army.  In  1865  Rev.  H.  V.  Philpott,  a  man  of  gifts  and  well 
fitted  for  the  task,  was  named  as  editor,  with  Captain  Grant 
as  publisher;  but  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  in 
18G6  Rev.  I.  G.  John  was  selected  as  editor.  About  this  time 
Mr.  Louis  Blaylock  was  employed  in  the  publishing  department. 
A  few  years  later,  under  the  firm  name  of  Shaw  and  Blay- 
lock, he  became  publisher,  a  post  which  he  has  held  with  phe- 
nomenal success  for  full  fifty  years. 

In  1884  Dr.  John  resigned  the  editorship  and  was  succeeded 
by  Rev.  George  W.  Briggs,  a  man  of  remarkable  talents  and 
an  exceptionally  brilliant  speaker.  The  office  of  publication 
was  moved  from  Galveston  to  Dallas  in  1887,  the  latter  place 
having  become  the  better  distributing  point.  On  the  retirement 
of  Mr.  Briggs,  in  1888,  the  Rev.  James  Campbell,  D.D.,  a  man 
of  solid  ability  and  strong  convictions,  became  editor.  He 
served  for  six  years  and  gave  way  to  the  Rev.  T.  R.  Pierce,  D.D. 
After  four  years  of  editorial  service,  Dr.  Pierce  was  followed 
by  the  Rev.  George  C.  Rankin.  Sketches  of  both  Dr.  Pierce  and 
Dr.  Rankin  will  be  found  in  the  body  of  this  history.  On  the 
death  of  Dr.  Rankin,  in  1015,  the  present  editor,  Rev.  W.  D. 
Bradfield,  D.D.,  was  elected.  Dr.  Bradfield  has  impressed  his 
constituency  and  the  whole  Church  with  his  ability,  strong 
judgment,  and  fine  gifts  as  a  writer.    The  Texas  Advocate  is- 


564 


History  of  Methodism. 


sues  about  thirty  thousand  copies  weekly  and  is  the  most 
widely  read  of  all  the  Conference  organs. 

Pacific  Methodist  Advocate. 

In  the  year  1890  the  two  Conference  organs  published  on 
the  Pacific  Coast,  the  Pacific  Methodist  and  the  Los  Angeles 
Christian  Advocate,  were  combined  into  one  journal,  known 
as  the  Pacific  Methodist  Advocate,  and  published  under  the 
auspices  of  the  General  Conference.  For  this  purpose  the  sum 
of  $10,000  had  been  set  apart.  The  first  number  was  issued 
early  in  1891,  with  H.  M.  Du  Bose,  of  the  Los  Angeles  Confer- 
ence, as  editor,  he  having  been  selected  for  the  post  by  the 
Book  Committee,  and  R.  P.  Wilson,  of  the  Pacific  Conference, 
as  business  manager. 

In  1849  Bishop  Paine  had  appointed  the  Rev.  Jesse  Boring 
to  open  mission  work  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  After  three  or  four 
years  as  superintendent  of  the  mission  there,  he  came  to  feel 
greatly  the  need  of  a  Church  periodical.  Arrangements  were 
accordingly  made  for  the  establishment  of  such  a  medium. 

On  January  5,  1852,  the  first  number  of  the  Christian  Ob- 
server  was  issued  at  San  Francisco.  It  was  a  modest  sheet, 
but  supplied  the  primitive  needs  of  the  mission.  At  various 
times  departments  of  the  paper  were  printed  in  Spanish,  many 
people  in  that  region  speaking  the  language  of  Spain.  The 
Christian  Observer  served  its  uses,  but  had  an  experience  of 
variable  fortune. 

Sometime  later,  and  wdiile  he  was  filling  the  pastorate  in 
Stockton,  the  Rev.  Orcenith  Fisher  began  the  publication  of  a 
paper  known  as  the  Pacific  Methodist.  This  paper  was  adopted 
by  the  Conference,  and  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  afterwards  well  known 
as  the  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate  and  then  as  bishop, 
became  its  editorial  manager.  This  position  he  continued  to 
hold  until  the  period  of  the  War  between  the  States,  when  the 
Pacific  Methodist  was  suspended.  About  the  year  1800  its  pub- 
lication was  resumed  under  the  name  of  the  Christian  Specta- 
tor, Dr.  Fitzgerald  being  continued  as  editor.  Later  the  name 
Methodist  was  restored.  From  the  editorship  of  the  revived 
Methodist  Dr.  Fitzgerald  was  elected  to  the  editorship  of  the 
general  organ. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


565 


The  publication  of  a  Conference  journal  in  California  was 
beset  with  many  difficulties,  but  there  is  scarcely  any  part  of 
the  Church  where  the  printed  page  is  more  needed  than  amongst 
the  widely  separated  communities  and  congregations  of  the 
West.  About  1886  the  Rev.  W.  B.  Stradley  began  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Los  Angeles  Christian  Advocate  as  the  organ  of 
the  districts  in  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  H.  M.  Du 
Bose  was  editor  of  the  Advocate  at  the  time  of  the  consolida- 
tion referred  to  above.  Some  years  before,  G.  B.  Winton  had 
been  editor  of  the  Pacific  Methodist;  and  he  was  succeeded  by 
S.  M.  Godbey,  who  was  also  incumbent  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
solidation. At  the  end  of  his  first  quadrennium  of  service  Dr. 
Du  Bose  transferred  to  the  Texas  Conference  and  was  suc- 
ceeded in  the  editorship  of  the  Pacific  Methodist  Advocate  by 
Rev.  R.  P.  Wilson,  who  thereafter  became  both  editor  and 
manager.  His  service  terminated  when,  in  1901,  he  was  se- 
lected to  be  manager  of  the  publishing  house  in  Shanghai, 
China.  Rev.  William  R.  Vaughan  was  then  called  to  the  post 
through  election  by  the  Book  Committee,  and  during  all  the 
remaining  years  he  has  been  the  indefatigable  editor  and  man- 
ager of  this  organ  of  the  Church  in  the  "ultimate  West." 

Southern  Christian  Advocate. 

The  Southern  Christian  Advocate,  which  was  founded  in 
1836,  had  a  history  identified  with  the  record  of  the  Wesley  an 
Christian  Advocate  up  to  the  General  Conference  of  1878,  when 
it  was  decided  that  there  should  be  a  separate  publication  for 
the  Conferences  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  A  reference 
to  the  sketch  of  the  Wesleyan  Christian  Advocate,  to  be  found 
in  this  chapter,  will  give  the  details  of  this  history  and  an 
account  of  the  vicissitudes  and  changes  of  fortune  which  came 
to  it  during  the  War  between  the  States.  The  Southern  Chris- 
tian Advocate  has  made  large  contribution  to  all  that  pertains 
to  the  growth  of  the  Church  and  to  the  advancement  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  in  general.  Not  a  few  great  names  have 
been  associated  with  its  editorial  management  in  the  long  past 
of  its  existence.  William  Capers,  to  whom  is  attributed  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  the  honor  of  having  been  the  "founder 
of  the  missions  to  the  slaves"  and  whose  memory  is  fragrant 


5G6 


History  of  Methodism. 


as  a  bishop  of  the  Church,  was  one  of  its  early  editors.  Wil- 
liam M.  Wightman,  another  bishop  of  the  Church  and  whose 
greatness  is  written  on  many  pages  of  the  Church's  annals,  was 
also  in  this  succession.  Dr.  P.  M.  Kennedy  and  Dr.  W.  1). 
Ivirkland,  the  latter  of  whom  afterwards  became  Sunday  School 
Editor,  are  also  remembered  as  occupying  in  their  order  the 
editorial  chair.  Dr.  S.  A.  Weber,  a  superannuate,  but  a  man 
who  has  contributed  much  to  the  history  of  South  Carolina 
Methodism  and  who  is  honored  for  his  ability,  his  sanctity  of 
life,  and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Master,  is  one  of  the 
Advocate's  living  ex-editors.  Dr.  W.  R.  Richardson,  a  trans- 
fer from  South  Carolina,  and  who  has  since  filled  important 
pulpits  in  Tennessee  and  Arkansas,  and  Dr.  John  O.  Willson, 
the  well-known  President  of  Lander  College,  were  in  their  turn 
users  of  the  Advocate's  inkhorn  to  the  satisfaction  of  their 
brethren.  Dr.  W.  C.  Kirkland,  the  present  editor,  is  a  worthy 
successor  in  this  line  of  honored  molders  of  the  thought  of 
the  Church  in  that  old  commonwealth  which  is  the  Advocate's 
undisputed  field. 

Baltimore-Richmond  Christian  Advocate. 

The  organ  of  the  Virginia  Conference  is  in  the  sixteenth  vol- 
ume of  its  new-series  issue,  but  as  the  old  Richmond  Advocate 
the  years  of  its  history  are  as  venerable  as  they  are  honorable. 
We  have  failed  to  secure  the  information  necessary  to  make 
the  detailed  narrative  we  had  planned  to  give.  The  names  of 
such  stalwarts  as  James  A.  Duncan,  Leroy  M.  Lee,  W.  W.  Ben- 
nett, and  John  J.  Lafferty  are  identified  with  its  past  history, 
and  no  paper  in  the  Connection  has  wielded  a  more  certain  in- 
fluence or  been  read  with  a  greater  relish  and  interest.  Some- 
what more  than  sixteen  years  ago  Rev.  James  Cannon,  D.D., 
bought  a  controlling  interest  in  the  stock  of  the  Advocate  and, 
having  secured  control  of  the  old  Baltimore  Christian  Advo- 
cate, consolidated  the  two,  with  offices  of  publication  at  Rich 
mond.  For  a  time  the  consolidated  paper  had  the  territory 
of  both  the  Virginia  and  the  Baltimore  Conferences;  but  with 
the  appearance  at  Baltimore  of  the  Southern  Methodist,  now 
in  its  fourteenth  volume,  the  patronage  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference was  withdrawn.    In  the  body  of  this  work  we  have 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


567 


given  character  sketches  of  each  of  the  men  who  in  the  edi- 
torial  management  of  the  Richmond  Advocate  have  helped  to 
make  it  the  distinct  and  virile  force  it  has  been  in  Methodism. 
Dr.  Cannon,  the  industrious  and  resourceful  editor  incumbent, 
has  not  permitted  the  traditions  of  the  paper  to  be  forgotten. 

Central  Methodist. 

The  organ  of  the  Louisville  and  Kentucky  Annual  Confer- 
ences, the  Central  Methodist,  of  which  Dr.  E.  G.  B.  Mann  is 
editor  and  Rev.  W.  T.  Swift  associate,  is  in  its  fifty-first  vol- 
ume, having  been  founded  early  in  18GG.  During  the  history  of 
the  initial  series  of  the  paper  it  was  called  the  Christian  Ob- 
server, the  place  of  publication  being  Parkersburg,  in  the  West- 
ern Virginia  Conference,  with  S.  Hargiss  as  editor.  The  min- 
utes of  the  Conference  take  no  note  of  editorial  appointment 
after  18GG  until  the  year  1880,  when  Zephaniah  Meek  was  an- 
nounced as  editor  of  the  Central  Methodist.  The  place  of  pub- 
lication was  then  at  Catlettsburg,  Ky.,  but  still  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Western  Virginia  Conference.  For  full  twenty 
years  Dr.  Meek  continued  the  double  work  of  editor  and  pub- 
lisher, becoming  familiarly  known  as  the  veteran  of  the  South- 
ern Methodist  press.  About  1900  Dr.  Meek  retired,  after  which 
the  paper  was  removed  to  Louisville,  to  become  the  organ  of  the 
Louisville  and  the  Kentucky  Conferences.  In  the  same  year 
the  Western  Virginia  Conference  adopted  as  its  organ  the 
Methodist  Advocate,  already  some  time  in  existence,  at  Par- 
kersburg. At  Louisville  Rev.  J.  W.  Lewis  and  Rev.  W.  F. 
Lloyd  were  for  a  year  or  so  joint  editors  of  the  Central  Meth- 
odist, while  discharging  regular  pastoral  duties.  After  their 
retirement  Prof.  D.  W.  Batson,  a  layman,  was  for  a  consider- 
able time  the  editor  and  publisher.  In  11)08  the  name  of  Rev. 
W.  Q.  Vreeland  appeared  in  the  appointments  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference  as  associate  editor,  and  in  1912  in  the  same  min- 
utes Rev.  W.  A.  Swift  was  announced  as  editor.  In  the  mean- 
time the  paper  had  been  removed  to  Lexington,  the  present 
place  of  publication,  after  which  Dr.  Mann  became  editor  in 
chief.  The  Methodist  has  a  choice  constituency  and  has  strong- 
ly and  ably  supported  the  doctrines  of  the  Church. 


568 


History  of  Methodism. 


Methodist  Advocate. 

The  Methodist  Advocate,  published  at  Sutton,  W.  Ya.,  in  its 
twenty -second  volume,  is  the  successor  of  the  Episcopal  Meth- 
odist Advocate,  projected  by  Rev.  T.  S.  Wade  and  Rev.  C.  A. 
Slaughter  at  Parkersburg  and  recognized  in  1899  as  the  organ 
of  the  Western  Virginia  Conference.  After  a  number  of  years 
of  existence  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Wade  and  others,  the 
Methodist  Advocate  was  suspended,  but  it  has  been  revived  in 
more  recent  years  under  the  editorial  management  of  Rev.  W. 
T.  Canter.  Dr.  Canter  has  displayed  much  newspaper  skill  and 
acumen,  and  the  paper  is  giving  good  service  in  a  connection 
much  needed. 

Arkansas  Methodist. 

The  Arkansas  Methodist,  published  at  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  is 
the  organ  of  the  North  Arkansas  and  the  Little  Rock  Confer- 
ences. It  has  an  interesting  history.  In  1870  Rev.  J.  W.  Bos- 
well  was  publishing  the  Church  News  at  Batesville,  Rev.  Je- 
rome Haralson  projected  the  Arkansas  Methodist  at  Darda- 
nelle,  and  Dr.  W.  C.  Johnson  was  publishing  the  Western 
Methodist,  which  had  been  moved  from  Memphis,  Tenn.,  to 
Little  Rock  and  had  become  the  official  organ  of  the  Arkansas 
Conferences.  Consolidation  of  all  of  these  was  effected  at  the 
1870  session  of  the  Arkansas  Conference,  Dr.  Johnson  assum- 
ing all  liabilities  and  becoming  editor,  with  Drs.  Boswell  and 
Haralson  as  associates. 

In  1881  the  Western  Methodist  ceased  publication,  after 
which  the  Arkansas  Messenger,  which  had  been  started  at  Mor- 
rillton  and  of  which  Dr.  Boswell  was  editor,  became  the  Arkan- 
sas Methodist  and  in  a  short  time  was  moved  to  Little  Rock. 
After  about  a  year  Dr.  Boswell's  son,  who  had  managed  the 
printing,  died,  and  Dr.  Boswell  sold  his  interest  to  Rev.  S.  G. 
Colhnrn,  who  associated  Dr.  J.  C.  Brown  witli  himself  for  a 
short  time.  When  Dr.  Colburn  died,  Rev.  J.  P.  Lowry  managed 
the  paper  until  it  was  sold  to  Dr.  A.  R.  Winfield  and  Dr.  J. 
n.  Dye.  Later  Mr.  A.  Emmonson,  a  layman,  purchased  Dr. 
Dye's  interest.  When  Dr.  Winfield.  after  a  brilliant  career, 
died,  December  27,  1887,  Rev.  Horace  Jewell  edited  the  paper 
until  Dr.  Z.  T.  Bennett  was  elected  editor.  February  1.  1888. 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


Late  in  1889  Hon.  George  Thornburgh,  a  layman,  purchased 
Mr.  Emmonson's  half  interest,  and  the  Arkansas  Methodist 
was  jointly  owned  by  Bennett  and  Thornburgh  until  the  fall 
of  1894,  when  Dr.  Bennett  sold  his  half  to  Dr.  J.  E.  Godbey, 
of  Missouri,  who  became  the  editor,  Mr.  Thornburgh  con- 
tinuing as  business  manager. 

In  September,  1904,  Rev.  James  A.  Anderson  and  Rev.  A.  C. 
Millar  became  the  editors  and  proprietors.  On  January  1, 
1906,  the  Oklahoma  Conference  having  voted  to  consolidate  its 
paper  with  the  Arkansas  Methodist,  publication  was  continued 
at  Little  Rock  under  the  name  of  Western  Christian  Advocate, 
the  name  of  the  former  Oklahoma  paper,  Rev.  P.  R.  Eagle- 
barger,  editor  of  the  Oklahoma  paper,  becoming  a  member  of 
the  new  firm  of  Anderson,  Millar,  and  Company.  Anderson, 
Millar,  and  Eaglebarger  were  joint  editors  and  proprietors. 
In  1907  the  name  was  changed  to  Western  Methodist,  but  the 
management  remained  the  same.  During  this  period  a  print- 
ing plant  had  been  acquired  and  a  large  printing  business  con- 
ducted. From  1906  to  1915  Dr.  Millar,  being  a  presiding  elder 
and  a  college  president,  gave  little  time  to  the  paper. 

In  1913  the  partnership  was  dissolved,  and  Rev.  W.  B.  Hays, 
Rev.  Frank  Barrett,  and  L.  F.  Blankenship  obtained  a  half  in- 
terest, Dr.  Millar  retaining  the  other  half,  but  having  no  active 
part  in  the  business.  Shortly  after  this  change  the  printing 
plant  was  sold,  a  stock  company  was  formed,  and  the  business 
was  conducted  under  the  name  of  the  Western  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing Company.  During  1914  the  circulation,  which  had 
hitherto  approximated  11,000,  was  by  unusual  methods  in- 
creased to  15,000 ;  but  heavy  expenses  were  incurred,  and  with 
the  financial  depression  caused  by  the  European  war  the  com- 
pany became  somewhat  embarrassed.  The  contract  with  the 
Oklahoma  Conferences  was  terminated  December  31,  1914,  and 
Dr.  A.  C.  Millar  became  editor  and  manager.  On  account  of 
the  financial  stringency,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  paper 
was  maintained  during  1915;  hence  at  the  Conferences  that 
fall  a  commission  consisting  of  Hon.  George  Thornburgh,  Presi- 
dent J.  M.  Williams,  Dr.  F.  S.  H.  Johnston,  Dr.  James  Thomas, 
Rev.  T.  D.  Scott,  and  Rev.  J.  K.  Farris  was  appointed  to  con- 
sider the  question  of  Conference  ownership.    The  commission 


570 


History  of  Methodism. 


recommended  purchase,  and  at  the  session  of  1915  the  Little 
Rock  and  North  Arkansas  Conferences  agreed  to  purchase  the 
property  for  approximately  $8,000,  authorized  the  raising  of  the 
money,  and  placed  the  aforementioned  commission  in  charge. 
Dr.  A.  C.  Millar  was  elected  editor,  and  the  name  Arkansas 
Methodist  was  restored.  The  paper  is  now  the  property  of  the 
two  Conferences  in  Arkansas.  It  has  a  circulation  of  10.000. 
which,  in  proportion  to  the  Church  membership  (108.000),  is 
among  the  best  in  the  Church.  During  its  life  of  thirty-five 
years  the  Arkansas  Methodist  has  been  a  potent  factor  in  the 
progress  of  Methodism  in  the  State. 

When  this  sketch  was  written  (September  21,  1916),  the  fol- 
lowing men  who  had  been  connected  with  the  paper  were  still 
living:  Rev.  Jerome  Haralson,  D.D.,  Rev.  J.  W.  Boswell,  D.D.. 
Rev.  J.  H.  Dye,  D.D..  Rev.  J.  P.  Lowry,  Rev.  Horace  Jewell, 
Rev.  Z.  T.  Bennett,  D.D.,  Hon.  George  Thornburgh,  Rev.  J.  E. 
Godbey,  D.D.,  Rev.  James  A.  Anderson,  D.D..  LL.D.,  Rev.  P.  R. 
Eaglebarger,  Rev.  W.  B.  Hays,  Rev.  Frank  Barrett,  Mr.  L.  F. 
Blankenship.  Rev.  A.  C.  Millar,  D.D.,  who  heads  this  long  line 
of  puissant  scribes,  is  the  present  editor.  The  Methodist  is  a 
living  power  in  the  great  field  which  it  serves. 

Florida  Christian  Advocate. 

The  date  lines  of  the  Florida  Christian  Advocate  give  the 
information  that  in  1916  it  was  in  its  thirtieth  year  of  ex- 
istence. Its  first  editor  was  the  Rev.  Josephus  Anderson. 
D.D.,  one  of  the  heroes  and  pioneers  of  Methodism  in  the 
South.  He  had  reached  all  but  the  patriarchal  stage  of  his 
life  when  he  undertook  the  heavy  burden  of  being  both  pub- 
lisher and  editor  of  a  Conference  newspaper.  This  proved  to 
be  doubly  a  task  in  the  restricted  field  which  he  served;  for 
though  in  fact  a  land  of  flowers  and  hospitable  throughout 
its  year,  Florida  has  come  slowlv  to  be  ranked  as  a  State  of 
wealthy  citizens,  and  Methodism  has  shared  the  experiences  of 
this  slow,  if  still  steady,  development.  But,  notwithstanding 
the  difficulties  experienced,  Dr.  Anderson  for  fourteen  years 
sustained  the  duties  of  his  exacting  task.  On  his  superannua- 
tion, in  1001.  the  editorship  was  nssnmed  by  Dr.  L.  W.  Moore, 
whose  gifts  and  attainments  fitted  him  for  the  post :  but  his 


The  Weekly  Methodist  Press. 


57  L 


services  extended  over  only  two  or  three  years,  when  Kev.  J. 
B.  Ley  became  editor,  and  he  in  turn  was  succeeded,  in  11)05, 
by  Kev.  Frederick  Pasco.  Dr.  Pasco  continued  to  occupy  the 
position  until  1908,  when  the  Kev.  N.  H.  Williams  was  chosen 
editor,  combining  with  that  office  the  duties  of  Conference  Mis- 
sionary Secretary.  He  retired  in  1010,  and  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Ley, 
the  indefatigable  former  editor,  again  took  the  tripod.  There 
was  an  interruption  of  publication  in  1911,  but  in  1912  the 
name  of  Rev.  D.  B.  Sweat  appears  in  the  Conference  Minutes 
as  editor.  He  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  J.  Edgar  Wilson, 
fhe  present  editor,  who,  like  his  predecessors,  has  learned  to 
carry  the  responsibility  of  his  undertaking  in  the  interest  of 
the  Church  which  he  and  they  have  so  well  and  faithfully 
served. 

North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate. 

The  Raleigh  and  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocates 
have  a  common  history  up  to  the  year  1898,  as  may  be  learned 
by  reference  to  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  former-named 
journal  contained  in  this  chapter.  In  1896  the  publication  of- 
fice of  the  Raleigh  Advocate  was  removed  from  Raleigh  to 
Greensboro,  and  the  name  of  the  paper  was  changed  to  North 
Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  the  Western  North  Carolina  and 
the  North  Carolina  Conferences  patronizing  it  jointly;  but  in 
1898,  as  above  noted,  a  severance  of  interests  occurred.  The 
North  Carolina  Conference  bought  from  the  private  owners 
of  the  publishing  plant  the  subscription  list  represented  in  its 
territory  and  reestablished  the  Raleigh  Advocate  at  its  former 
place  of  publication.  The  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate. 
as  the  organ  of  the  Western  Conference,  was  continued  at 
Greensboro,  with  Dr.  W.  L.  Crawford  as  editor  in  chief.  Dur- 
ing the  Conference  year  of  1900-01  he  was  succeeded  by  the 
present  editor,  the  Rev.  Hugh  M.  Blair.  Dr.  Blair  has  shown 
great  aptitude  for  editorial  work  and  has  held  the  Advocate 
to  a  policy  of  progressive  ideas,  but  has  kept  it  loyal  and  frank- 
ly Methodistic. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


COLLEGES  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH. 
A-Grade  Colleges. 


Men. 

Central  College  

Henarix  College  

Millsaps  College  

Randoiph-Macon  College. 

Soochow  University  

Southwestern  University. 

Trinitv  College  

Woftord  College  


Women. 

Athens  College  

Columbia  College  

Greensboro  College  

Martha  Washington  College  

Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College. 

Wesleyan  College  

Woman's  College  of  Alabama  


Fayette,  Mo  

Conway,  Ark  

Jackson,  Miss  

Ashland,  Va  

Soochow,  China... 
Georgetown,  Tex. 

Durham,  N.  C  

Spartanburg,  S.  0 


Athens,  Ala  

Columbia,  S.  C  

Greensboro,  N.  C. 

Abingdon,  Va  

Lynchburg,  Va  

Macon,  Ga  

Montgomery,  Ala. 


1855 
1884 
1890 
1880 
1901 
1873 
1851 
1852 


1843 
1854 
1888 
1854 
1890 
1836 
1911 


B-Grade  Colleges. 


Birmingham  College  

Central  College  tor  Women... 

Emory  and  Henry  College  

Galloway  College  

Kentucky  We  deyan  College. 

Lagrange  College  

Southern  College  

Southern  Universitv  

Texas  Woman's  College  


Birmingham,  Ala. 

Lexington  Mo  

Emory,  Va..:  

Searcy,  Ark  

Winchester,  Ky.... 

Lagrange,   

Sutherland,  Ma.... 
Greensboro,  Ala... 
Fort  Worth,  Tex.. 


1898 

18,000  00 

18G9 

72,000  00 

1839 

35,000  00 

1888 

25,000  00 

1860 

82,195  00 

1846 

1902 

26,000  00 

1856 

103,000  00 

1914 

Junior  Colleges. 


Blackstone  College  lor  Girls. 

Howard-Payne  College  

Logan  Female  College  

Mansfield  Female  College  

Martin  College  

Meridian  College  

Morris  Harvev  College  

Seth  Ward  College  

Weaver  College  


Blackstone,  Va  

Fayette,  Mo  

Russellville,  Ky  

Mansfield,  La  

Pulaski,  Tenn  

Meridian,  Tex  

Barboursville,  W,  Va. 

Plainview,  Tex  

Weaverville.  N.  C  


1904 
1859 
1867 
1855 
1870 
1907 
1888 


1874 


Unclassified. 


Andrew  College  

Carolina  College  

Centenary  College  of  Louisiana.. 

Centenary  Female  College  

Clarendon  College.  

Columbia  Junior  College  

Davenport  College  

Grenada  College  

Henderson-Brown  College  

Hiwassee  College  

Lander  College  

Louisburg  Female  College  

Marvin  College  

Memphis  Conf.  Female  College.... 

North  Texas  College  

Port  Gibson  Female  Institute  

Reinhardt  College  

San  Antonio  Female  College  

Scarritt-Morrisville  College  

Stamford  College  

Sullins  College  

Wesley  College  

Whitworth  College  

Younsr  L.  G.  Harris  College  


Cuthbert.  Ga  

Maxton,  N.  C  

Shreveport,  La  

Cleveland,  Tenn  

Clarendon,  Tex  

Milton,  Oregon  

Lenoir,  N.  C  

Grenada,  Miss  

Arkadelphia,  Ark... 
Sweetwater,  Tenn... 

Greenwood,  S.  C  

Louisburg,  N.  C  

Fredericktown,  Mo. 

Jackson,  Tenn  

Sherman,  Tex  

Port  Gibson,  Miss ... 

Waleska,  Ga  

San  Antonio,  Tex.... 

Morrisville,  Mo  

Stamford,  Tex  

Bristol,  Va  

Greenville,  Tex  

Brookhaven,  Miss... 
Young  Harris.  Ga... 


1854 
19u7 
1845 
1884 
1898 
1905 
1858 
1884 
1890 
1849 
1873 
1867 
1847 
1843 
1877 
1854 
1887 
1896 
1872 
1907 


1858 
1887 


(575) 


576 


History  of  Methodism. 


The  following  institutions,  chartered  as  colleges  or  universities,  have  at 
different  times  been  reported  as  Southern  Methodist  schools  by  either  the 
General  Conference  Committee  on  Education  or  the  General  Conference 
Board  of  Education.  But  they  have  all  been  closed  or  merged  with  other 
institutions  or  have  passed  from  the  ownership  and  control  of  the  Church: 


Lagrange  College  

Bascorn  Female  College  

Oak  Bowery  Female  College  

Tuskegee  Female  College  

East  Alabama  College  

Wesleyan  University  

Huntsville  Female  College  

Alabama  Female  College  

Tuscaloosa  College  

Arkansas  Female  College  

Quitman  College  

Searcy  College  

Wilson  College  

Pacific  Methodist  College  

Corvallis  College  

East  Florida  Seminary  

Florida  Conference  College  

Madison  Female  College  

Cassville  College  

Dalton  Female  College  

Andrew  Female  College  

Levert  Female  College  

Georgia  Methodist  Female  College. 

Illinois  Conference  College  

Transylvania  Univer.'itv  

Kentucky  Wesleyan  University  

Warren  College  

Cedar  Bluff  Female  College  

Greenville  Ladies'  College  

Asbury  College  

Millersburg  Female  College  

Bethel  College  

Augusta  College  

Science  Hill  Academy  

Homer  College  

Baton  Rouge  Seminary  

Pierce  and  Paine  College  

Cokesbury  College  

Franklin  Female  College  

Sharon  Fem:ile  College  

Jackson  Wesleyan  Female  College. 

Macon  Female  College  

Verona  College  

Corinth  Female  College  

Iuka  Female  College  

East  Mississippi  Female  C'  liege  

Aberdeen  Female  College  

Edward  McGehee  College  

Malone  College  

East  Mississippi  Female  College  

Northwest  Missouri  College  

Cottey  College  

Scarritt  Collegiate  Institute  

Las  Vegas  Seminary  

HoLston  Female  College  

Carolina  Female  College  

Wesleyan  Female  College  

Normal  College  

Warrenton  College  

Lane  ( 'ollege  

Raleigh  Seminary  

Danville  Female  Colleere  

Central  Female  Institute  

Littleton  Female  College  


Lagrange,  Ala  

Lagrange,  Ala  

Lagrange,  Ala  

Tuskegee,  Ala  

Auburn,  Ala  

Florence,  Ala  

Huntsville,  Ala  

Tuskegee,  Ala  

Tuscaloosa,  Ala.  .. 
Little  Rock,  Ark. 

Quitman,  Ark  

Searcy,  Ark  


Wilmington,  Cal... 
Santa  Rosa,  Cal.  .. 
Corvallis,  Oregon. 


Leesburg,  Fla  

Madison,  Ga  

Cassville,  Ga  

Dalton,  Ga  

Dawson,  Ga  

Talbotton,  Ga  

Covington,  Ga  

Limestone,  111  

Lexington,  Ky  

Millersburg,  Ky  

Bowling  Green,  Ky. 

Woodbury,  Ky  

Greenville,  Ky  

Wilmore,  Ky  

Millersburg,  Ky  

Kentucky  

Kentucky  

Shelbyvi'lle,  Ky  

Homer,  La  

Baton  Rouge,  La  

Louisiana  

Abingdon,  Md  


Verona,  Miss  

Corinth,  Miss  

Tuka.  Miss  

Brookhaven,  Miss  ... 

Aberdeen,  Miss  

Woodville,  Miss  

Hollv  Springs,  Miss 

Meridian,  Miss  

Albanv,  Mo  

Nevada,  Mo  

Neof-ho,  Mo  

Las  Vegas,  N.  Mex... 

North  Carolina  

North  Carolina  

Murfreesboro.  N.  C. 

North  Carolina  

North  Carolina  

North  Carolina  

Raleieh,  N.  C  

Danville,  N.  C  

Mio-dleton.  N.  C  

Littleton,  N.  C  


Estab- 
lished. 


1830 


1852 
1851 
1864 
1872 
1«1 
1890 
1878 
1861 


1873 
1868' 


1873 


1858 
1^73 


1850 
1>-51 
1790 
1^20 
1890 


1785 


1870 
1873 


1869 
1877 

lh8S 
1879 


Not 
Mentioned 
After. 


Appendix, 


577 


Estab- 
lished. 


Not 

Men  t  IbnCd 
AftlT. 


Spaulding  Female  College  

Hargrove  College  

Willie  HaLsell  College  

Epworth  University  

Spartanburg  College  

Williamston  Female  College  

Tennessee  Conference  Female  College. 

Andrew  College  

Soule  College  

Tennessee  Female  College  

Wesleyan  Female  College  

State  Female  College  

People's  College  

Chapel  Hill  Female  College  

Wesleyan  College  

Rutersville  College  

Andrew  Female  College  

Soule  University  

Waco  Female  College  

Marvin  College  

Austin  Female  College  

Dallas  Female  College  

Sherman  Institute  

Texas  University  

Fredericksburg  College  

Fairfield  College  

San  Angelo  College  

Bowling  Green  Seminary  

Petersburg  Female  College  

Wesleyan  Female  College  

Valley  Female  College  

Montgomery  Female  College  

Danville  Female  College  

Southern  Seminary  

Suffolk  College  

Russell  Colleere  

Strawberry  Plains  College  

Farmville  College  

Norfolk  Institute  

Marshall  Collie  

Shelbyville  University  


Muskogee,  Okla. 


Vinita,  Okla  

Oklahoma  City,  Okla. 

Spartanburg,  S.  C  

Williamston,  S.  C  


Murfreesboro,  Tenn. 

Franklin,  Tenn  

Brownsville,  Tenn  

Memphis,  Tenn  

Pikeville,  Tenn  

Texas  

Texas  


Chapel  Hill,  Tex. 
Waco,  Tex  


Waxahachie,  Tex  

Austin,  Tex  

Dallas,  Tex  

Sherman,  Tex  

Georgetown,  Tex  

Fredericksburg,  Tex. 

Fairfield,  Tex  

San  Angelo,  Tex  

Bowling  Green,  Va... 

Petersburg,  Va  

Staunton,  Va  

Winchester,  Va  

Christiansburg,  Va  

Danville,  Va  

Buena  Vista,  Va  

Suffolk,  Va  

Lebanon,  Va  


Virerinia  

Norfolk,  Va  

West  Virginia  

Shelbyville,  Tenn 


1881 
190!) 
1890 
1006 


187^ 


1870 
1858 
1875 
1852 


18555 
1850 


18(58 
1873 


1870 
1854 
1008 


1861 


1872 
1854 


1900 


37 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Abbey,  Richard,  95,  97,  152. 
Adams,  John,  188,  365. 
Addams,  Jane,  169. 
Africa,  93. 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
71. 

African    Methodist    Episcopal  Zion 

Church,  40,  7  2. 
African  Mission,  278. 
Age  Limit,  335. 
Ahrens,  John  B.  A.,  236. 
Ainsworth,  W.  N.,  371. 
Alabama    Christian    Advocate,    165  ; 

Sketch  of,  559,  560,  561. 
Alabama  Conference,  25,  35 ;  Sketch 

of,  410,  411,  412. 
Albert  Hall,  257. 

Alexander,  Gross,  56,   230,  274,  347, 

367,  368. 
Alexander,  Robert,  36. 
Alexandria,  32. 
Allen,  B.  P.,  263. 
Allen,  Miss  Emily,  286. 
Allen,  Mrs.  Young  J.,  281. 
Allen,  Young  J.,  97,  142,  219,  234,  286. 
American  Bible  Society,  183,  365. 
American  Wesleyan  Church,  40. 
Anderson,  Bishop,  212,  251. 
Anderson,  Joseplius,  188,  327. 
Anderson,  Stonewall,  189,  287. 
Anderson,  T.  H.  B.,  110,  326. 
Anderson,  W.  D.,  129. 
Anderson,  W.  H.,  95,  101. 
Andrew,  Bishop,  16,  21,  27,  98,  279. 
Andrew  Female  College,  166  ;  Sketch 

of,  526,  527. 
Andrews,  A.  S.,  153,  165,  322. 
Andrews,  Bishop,  43,  211,  247. 
Andrews,  M.  S.,  165. 
Anglicanism,  41,  65. 
Anniversary  meeting,  258. 
Annual  Conferences,  17,  116,  301. 
Anthony,  Samuel,  188. 
Antipodes,  45,  260. 
Apostles'  Creed,  86,  187,  362. 
"Apostles  to  the  Cubans,"  207. 
Appalachian  Mountains,  75. 
Appendix,  575,  576,  577. 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  176,  177. 
Archons,  The,  25. 
Argonauts,  78. 
Arkansas,  197. 
Arkansas  Conference,  198. 
Arkansas  Methodist,  Sketch  of,  568, 

569,  570. 
"Armageddon,"  25,  350. 
Armstrong,  J.  E..  233,  234. 
Arnett,  Bishop,  72. 
Arthur,  William,  106,  175,  216. 
Articles  of  Religion,  41,  78,  143,  171, 

220,  226. 
Asburian  Episcopate,  245. 
Asburian  Era,  42,  77. 
Asbury,  Bishop,  29,  67,  76,  141,  150, 

155.  198,  234,  332. 
"Asbury  of  Japan,"  272. 
Athens    Female    College,    Sketch  of 

505.  506. 


Atkins,  Bishop,  148,  160. 
Atkins,  D.,  189. 
Atkins,  Mrs.  D.,  286. 
Atlanta,  21,  43, 
Atmore,  Charles,  102. 
Attempted  legislation,  308. 
Augusta,  31,  46. 
Australia.  70. 

Australian  Methodist  Church,  40,  217, 

260,  341,  343. 
Auxiliary  Fund,  373. 

Bailey,  E.  A.,  328. 
Baldwin,  S.  D.,  25,  201. 
Baldwin,  Stephen  L.,  209. 
Balkans,  373. 
Baltimore,  43,  141. 

Baltimore  Conference,  9,  30,  31  ; 
Sketch  of,  380,  381,  382,  383,  384. 

Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist,  131. 

Baltimore-Richmond  Christian  Advo- 
cate, Sketch  of,  566,  567. 

Baltimore  Southern  Methodist,  Sketch 
of,  553,  554. 

Bangs,  Nathan,  150,  161,  276. 

Baptist  Church,  40. 

Baptist  Convention,  84,  227,  348. 

Barbee,  J.  D.,  85,  127,  148,  153,  154, 
190,  206,  207,  263. 

Barclay,  W.  F.,  189. 

Barcus,  J.  M.,  189. 

Barnes  Hospital,  88. 

Barnes,  Robert  A.,  88. 

Bascom,  Bishop,  55,  98,  101. 

Bashford,  Bishop,  212,  248,  249. 

Batchelor,  J.  A.,  263. 

Bate,  Senator,  190,  191. 

Bates,  Creed,  189,  224. 

Bates,  John  L.,  184,  185. 

Baxter,  Nathaniel,  153. 

Bayless,  J.  H.,  65,  101. 

Beaty,  L.  F.,  160,  263. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  87. 

Beet,  Joseph  Agar,  106. 

Belfast  College,  140. 

Bennett,  W.  W.,  58. 

Berean  Lessons,  158. 

Berkeley,  56. 

Berry,  Bishop,  75,  93,  135,  146,  174, 
212. 

Berryman,  J.  C.  186,  231. 
Berry  man,  N.  G.,  25. 
Beveridge,  Senator,  251. 
Bible  Christians,  39,  68,  69,  70. 
Bible,  The,  137. 
Biggs,  Albert  W..  309. 
Bigham,  R.  J.,  154,  187,  189. 
Binkley,  J.  M.,  188. 
Birmingham,  218. 

Birmingham  College,  233;  Sketch  of, 

508,  509,  510. 
Bishop,  Horace,  189. 
Bishop  of  London,  177. 
Black,  W.  C,  237,  238. 
Blackard,  J.  W.,  263. 
Blackstone  College  for  Girls,  Sketch 

of.  518. 

(581) 


582  History  of 


Blaylock,  L..  563. 

Bledsoe,  Albert  Taylor,  55,  56. 

Blue,  O.  R..  95,  100. 

Board  of  Bishops,  12. 

Board   of   Education,    80,    110,  ill. 

112,  309,  361. 
Board  of  Missions,  169. 
Board  of  Trustees,  81,  82. 
Boer  War,  71,  140. 
Boland,  J.  M.,  188. 
Bonner,  T.  R.  39. 
Book  Agent,  24,  192,  193. 
Book  Committee,  145,  153,  184,  190. 
Book  Concern,  93,  109,  135,  149,  150, 

153. 

Book  Editor,  131. 

Book  of  Discipline.  48,  266.  360. 

Book  Steward,  149,  331. 

Boring,  Jesse,  95.  96. 

Boswell,  C.  M.,  337. 

Boswell,  John  W.,  165. 

Boswell,  T.  L.,  165,  290. 

Bounds,  E.  M.,  85. 

Bourland,  H.  A..  188. 

Bovard,  F.  D..  332. 

Bowman,  Bishop,  62,  86,  135. 

Boyer,  H.  K.,  263. 

Boxer  Troubles,  178. 

Bradfield,  W.  D.,  563. 

Bradfield,  William,  363. 

Branch,  J.  O.,  189. 

Brandon,  Frank  W.,  263. 

Bray,  J.  A,  347. 

Brazil,  20,  46. 

Brazil     Mission     Conference,  117; 

Sketch  or',  4  68,  469. 
Brecken,  Ralph,  185. 
Brewer,  T.  F.,  189. 
Briggs,  C.  H.,  189. 
Rriggs,  William,  57,  345,  441. 
Bristol,  Bishop  of.  84,  251,  253. 
British  African  Church,  72. 
British  Connection,  57. 
British    Methodist   Episcopal  Church 

of  Canada,  40. 
Broadus.  Dr.,  367. 
Bromilow,  W.  E..  261. 
Browder,  R.  W..  367. 
Brown,  A.  G.,  188. 
Brown  Brothers,  15. 
Brown,  George,  260. 
Brown,  J.  G.,  263. 
Brown.  Milton,  290. 
Brown,  O.  E.,  263. 
Brown,  R.  K.,  81. 
Brown,  S.  H..  188. 
Browning.  W.  H.,  328. 
Brownsville,  37. 
Brummitt,  Dan  B..  337. 
Brunner,  J.  H.,  365. 
Buckley.  J.  M.,  65,  93,  134,  135,  174, 

212.  235,  249,  250,  253,  337. 
Buffalo.  95. 
Bulla.  C.  D..  160. 
Bunting,  Jabez,  257,  372. 
Burgher,  B.  M.,  436. 
Burk.  John  W..  326. 
Burkhead.  L.  D.,  188. 
Burrow.  James  A.,  189. 
Burt,  Bishop,  212,  249.  347. 
Butler,  William,  173. 

Cadman,  S.  Parkes.  348. 
Calloway.  Morgan,  165.  230.  274. 
Campbell.  Bishop,  72. 
Campbell,  James,  189. 
Canada.  67. 


Methodism. 


Canada  Methodist  Union,  68. 
Canadian  Bible  Christians,  40. 
Canadian  General  Conference,  213. 
Canadian   Methodism,   Centennial  of, 
102. 

Canadian  Methodist  Church,  169,  213, 
253. 

Candler,  Asa,  356. 

Candler,  Bishop,  110,  147,  148,  347. 

Cannon.  James.  189. 

Cape  May  Commission,  21,  36,  168. 

Capers,  Bishop,  26. 

Capers,  Thomas  M.,  26. 

Carlisle,  James  H.,  38,  110. 

Carlton,  Rev.  Dr.,  15. 

Carman,  Albert,  68,  329,  345,  371. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  315. 

Carolina  College,  Sketch  of,  533,  534. 

Carroll.  H.  K.,  345,  346. 

Carter,  C.  W.,  237,  238. 

Carter,  D.  W.,  189. 

Carter,  John  A.,  153. 

Carter,  Mrs.  John,  286. 

Carter,  Miss  Maria,  286. 

Cartwright.  Peter,  139,  167. 

Cassells,  Hamilton,  348. 

Castlehow,  I.,  260. 

"Centenary  Cameos,"  269. 

Centenary  Church,  77. 

Centenary     College     of  Louisiana, 

Sketch  of,  527,  528,  529. 
Centenary  Conference,  9,  28,  38,  42, 

43,  44,  116. 
Centenary  literature,  45. 
Centenary  movement,  66. 
Centenary  year,  24  5. 
Central  College,  29  ;  Sketch  of,  493. 

494. 

Central  College  for  Women,  Sketch 

of.  513.  514. 
Central  Methodist,  Sketch  of,  567. 
Central   Mexico   Mission  Conference, 

Sketch  of,  469,  470. 
Central  Texas  Conference,  Sketch  of, 

436,  437.  438.  439. 
Central  Universitv,  289,  290,  292,  293. 

294,  295. 
Chadwick,  J.  S.,  560. 
Chancery  Court  of  Davidson  County. 

310. 

Chancery  Court  Injunction.  311. 
Chao,  T.  C.  360. 
Chapman,  James,  345. 
Chapman,  M.  B.,  47,  322. 
Chappell,  E.  B.,  160,  230,  274,  374. 
Chappell,  Mrs.  E.  B.,  281. 
Charleston  College,  27. 
Charters,  Commission  on,  362. 
Chattanooga,  95. 
Chautauqua,  95. 
Chicago,  54. 

Chicote.  Samuel.  37,  38. 
Children's  Day.  4  8,  159. 
Childs,  R.  A.,  189. 
China,  20,  46. 

China  Mission  Conference,   98,   278  ; 

Sketch  of.  468. 
Chown.  S.  D.,  330,  345.  347.  371. 
Chreitzburg,  (L  M.,  233. 
Christian  Advocate,   19.    24.    85,  93. 

145.  161.  269. 
Christian  Endeavor,  73. 
Christian  Perfection.  89. 
Christian.  J.  T..  263. 
Christian.  T.  T..  326. 
Christian  Union  Church.  11. 
"Christianity  of  Christ.  The."  229. 


Christmas  Conference,  9,  43. 
Christology,  204. 

Church  Extension  Board,  47,  78,  148, 

162,  163,  164,  186,  231,  284,  285. 
Church  Halls,  259. 
Church  Membership,  338. 
"Church  of  the  Strangers,"  19. 
Church  Papers,  12. 

Church  Statistics,  219,  247,  255,  264. 
Church  Union,  372. 
Churches  in  the  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence, 86. 
City  Missions,  280. 
City  Road  Chapel,  39. 
Clarendon  College,  Sketch  of,  526. 
Clark,  Alexander,  250. 
Clark,  Francis  E.,  73. 
Clark,  I.  W.,  189. 
Clark,  J.  O.  A.,  129,  326. 
Clark,  Judge  Walter,  117. 
Clark,  R.  S.,  370. 
Clarke,  Adam,  61,  339. 
Clay,  C.  C,  39. 
Clayton,  Albert,  257. 
Cleveland,  74,  94,  95. 
Clopton  School,  283. 
Cobb,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  281. 
Cobb,  Tobias  P.,  370. 
Cochran,  J.  B.,  263. 
Coke,  Bishop,  70,  243,  339. 
Cole,  E.  W.,  39,  81,  110,  310. 
Cole,  J.  N..  263. 

College  of  Bishops,  142,  187,  194,  221, 

227,  247,  266,  305,  310. 
Colored  bishops,  335. 
Colored  institutes,  Sketch  of,  522. 
Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

15,  40,  45,  71,  222. 
Colquitt,  A.  H.,  38. 

Columbia    College,    Sketch    of,  501, 
502,  503. 

Columbia  Conference,  Sketch  of,  467. 
Comer,  Governor,  39. 
"Comity   and   Federation,"    47,  322, 
323. 

Commission  on  Federation,  116. 
Commission  on  Unification,  377,  378. 
Commission  on  Union,  14. 
Committee  of  Fifteen,  317. 
Committee  on  Appeals,  360. 
Conference  boundaries,  363. 
Congo  Free  State,  Abuses  in,  222. 
Congo  Mission,  267  ;  Sketch  of,  473. 
Congregational  Church,  40,  348. 
Congress,  190. 
Congressional  Record,  193. 
Connectional  elections,  363. 
Connectional  office,  51. 
Connectional  salaries,  145. 
Connectionalism,  182,  183. 
Consolidation  of  newspapers,  225. 
Constitution,  The.  63.  114,  245.  332. 
"Constitutional  History.  A,"  93. 
"Constitutional     History     of  Meth- 
odism," 229. 
Cook,  Bishop,  117,  336. 
Cook,  E.  F..  280,  281. 
Cooper,  Ezekiel,  150. 
Cooper,  I.  W.,  263. 
Coronal  Institute,  Sketch  of,  522. 
Corvallis,  78. 
Cottrell,  Joseph  B.,  188. 
Council,  The,  156. 
Court  of  Appeals,  48.  124,  334. 
Cox.  J.  B..  263. 
Cox,  Melville  B.,  277. 
Cox,  Nathan,  33. 


Cox,  S.  K.,  324. 
COX,  W.  M.,  263. 
Craighead,  EJ.  B.,  189. 
Cranston,  Bishop,  64,  135,  333. 
Craven,  Braxton,  33,  34. 
Cravens,  N.  A.,  188. 
Crary,  B.  F.,  124. 
Crawford,  Andrew  J.,  25. 
Creek  Nation,  37,  38. 
Creighton,  W.  B.,  331. 
Crockett,  R.  E.,  110. 
Crookshanks,  C.  H.,  373. 
Cuban  Mission,  117;  Sketch  of,  472. 
Culley,  Robert,  340. 
Cumberland     Presbyterian  Church, 
184. 

Cunnyngham,  Jesse,  167. 
Cunnyngham,  W.  G.  E.,  24,  52,  85, 

143,  160,  167. 
Cunnyngham,  Mrs.  W.  G.  E.,  281. 
Cupples,  Samuel,  39. 
Curry,  Daniel,  61. 
Curts,  Lewis,  135. 

Dahlinger,  W.  H.,  34  0. 
Daily  Chronicle,  41. 
Dameron,  Logan  D.,  21. 
Damien,  Father,  325. 
"Daniel  Quorm,"  69. 
Daniels,  F.  M.,  189. 
Daniels,  Hon.  Josephus,  358. 
Dannelly,  J.  M.,  263. 
"Dark  Continent,"  71. 
Darlington,  U.  V.  W.,  263. 
Davenport  College,  Sketch  of,  52w 
Davidson,  Asbury,  188. 
Davies,  Rev.  Dr.,  25. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  24  2. 
Davison,  W.  T.,  147,  175,  176,  215. 
Day,  James  R.,  34  7. 
Deaconess,  64,  361. 
Deed  Poll,  103,  104. 
Deeds  of  Declaration,  193,  104. 
Deems,  Charles  F.,  19. 
Delegated  General  Conference,  14i 
Delegates  to  General  Conference,  *r, 
334. 

Demiurge,  A.,  56. 

Denny,  Bishop,  143,  254,  273,  27*. 

Denver,  95. 

Denver   Conference,    20 ;    SkeO/i  of, 

456,  457. 
De  Pauw  University,  253. 
De  Pauw,  Washington  C,  61. 
Detroit,  95. 

Detwiler,  G.  H.,  263,  366. 

Dickey,  J.  E.,  263,  275,  287. 

Dickins,  John,  149,  150. 

Didsbury  College,  139, 

Discipline,    Administration    of  115. 

159;    Book   of,    13,   113,    LIS  155. 

156,  187,  266. 
District  Conferences,  47,  it  110,  125, 
District  Synods,  105. 
Ditzler,  Jacob,  11,  244. 
"Diuturnity,"  97. 
Doctrines,  214. 
Doctrines,  Wesleyan,  17. 
Doggett,  Bishop,  16,  26,  2\  55. 
Doggett,  Mrs.  D.  D.,  283. 
Dolliver,  J.  P.,  146. 
Douglass,  George,  57. 
Dow,  Lorenzo,  139.  167. 
Dowman,  Charles  E.,  188,  365. 
Downey,  D.  G.,  253,  337. 
Duke,  B.  N,  110. 
Dukes,  A.  O.,  98. 


584 


History  of  Methodism. 


Dument,  J.  J.,  296. 

Duncan,  Bishop,  51,  117,  238,  239. 

Duncan,  David,  31. 

Duncan,  James  A.,  31. 

Duncan,  John  T.,  263. 

Dunscombe,  S.  H.,  153. 

Dutch  confederation,  71. 

Dye,  J.  H.,  117. 

Early,  Bishop,  11,  16,  21,  151. 
Early  leaders,  188. 

"Early  Methodism  in  the  Carolinas," 
233. 

East  Columbia  Conference,  Sketch  of, 

467,  468. 
East,  E.  H.,  153,  298. 
Eaton,  Homer,  93,  65,  135,  253. 
"Ecclesiastical  Constitution,"  97. 
Eckman,  George  P.,  337. 
Economy,  Committee  on,  12. 
Ecumenical  Conference,  38,  39,  41,  43, 

67,  68,  74,  85,  86,  94,  116,  174,  175, 

176,  226,  257,  344,  363. 
Ecumenical    Missionary  Conference, 

168. 

Ecumenical  sermon,  176. 

Ecumenical  World  Message,  348,  3  4  9. 

Education,  12,  24,  287. 

Educational  Commission,  355. 

Edwards,  Arthur.  209. 

Edwards,  F.  M.,  327. 

Edwards,  John  E.,  95. 

Eleazer,  R.  B.,  281. 

"Elements  of  Divinity,"  98. 

Ellis,  T.  D..  263. 

Embury,  Philip,  67. 

Emory    and     Henry    College,  100; 

Sketch  of,  510,  511. 
Emory  College,  31,  35. 
Emory  University,   80,   97,   127,  166, 

356;  Sketch  of,  474,  475,  476. 
English  Wesleyan  Church,  227,  338. 
Epidemic  diseases,  219. 
Episcopacy,  Diocesan,  16. 
Episcopal  Address.  11,  45,  46,  63,  77, 

102,   107,   125,   147,   170,   171,  208, 

210,   219,   246,   250,   263,   279,  351, 

352,  355. 
Episcopal  College,  51. 
"Episcopal  Methodist  Church,"  49. 
Episcopal  veto,  113,  115. 
hJpworth  Era,  110. 

Epworth  Herald,  75,  93. 
Epworth  League,  73,  74,  94,  148. 
Ep worth  League  assemblies,  225. 
Epworth  League  convention,  117. 
Epworth  Rectory.  177. 
Essex,  R.  W.,  346. 
Europe,  23. 

Evangelical  Association,  40,  119. 

Evangelism,  361. 

Evans,  J.  E.,  151. 

Eveland,  Bishop,  337. 

Everett,  W.  C,  154. 

Exeter  Hall,  4  0. 

Fairbanks,  Vice  President,  227,  247. 

"Eamilienfreund,"  236. 

Eaneuil  Hall,  76. 

Parmer,  J.  H,  34  8. 

Earrar,  John,  372. 

Eeatherstun.  H.  W.,  263. 

Federal  Council.  118,  123,  221,  352, 

353,  365. 

Federation,   110,   116,  117,  118,  119, 

120,  121. 
Eernley  lectures,  341. 


Few,  W.  P.,  362. 
Financial  stringency,  23. 
Finney,  T.  M.,  81,  163. 
First  Conference  west  of  mountains, 
76. 

Fisher,  Orcenith,  188. 

Fishburne,  T.  T.,  189. 

Fisk,  Clinton  B.,  20,  62. 

Fisk  University,  62. 

Fisk,  Wilhur,  32,  35,  98,  100,  212,  372. 

Fitchett,  W.  H,  346,  347. 

Fite,  T.  D.,  153. 

Fite,  Mrs.  T.  D.,  282. 

Fitzgerald,  Bishop,  52,  64,  144,  186, 

268,  269,  326. 
FitzGerald,  Bishop,  64,  117,  247. 
Fitzhugh  and  Biggs,  311. 
Florida,  170. 

Florida     Christian    Advocate,     327  ; 

Sketch  of,  570,  571. 
Florida   Conference,    26  ;    Sketch  of; 

402,  403,  404. 
Foote,  W.  H,  39. 
Forbes,  Robert,  337. 
Forward  movement,  70,  83,  102. 
Foss,  Bishop,  146,  211,  .333. 
Foster,  Bishop,  43,  209. 
Foster,  H.  J.,  340. 
Foster.  W.  H,  38. 
Foundry  Church,  54,  117. 
Fowler,  C.  H.,  20. 
Fowler,  Littleton,  35. 
Fowler,  Sir  Henry,  258. 
Fraternal   Addresses,    126,    146,  173, 

211,  254,  255,  337,  363. 
Fraternity,  227. 
Frazer,  J.  S.,  81. 
Fredericksburg,  28. 
Free  Methodist  Church,  40. 
French  Methodist  Church,  40. 
Fry,  Benjamin  St.  James,  101. 
Fullbright.  H.  J.,  263. 
Fullwood,  C.  A.,  207. 

Gallipoli  Peninsula,  373. 
Galloway,   Bishop,   51,   83,   106,  110, 

127,   169,    175,   219,   237,   238,  240. 

241,  242. 

Galloway  College,  Sketch  of,  514,  515. 

Garland,  J.  R..  189. 

Garland,  L.  C,  38,  295,  299. 

Garland,  W.  W.,  39. 

Garrett,  Charles,  68. 

Garrison,  T.  S.,  189. 

Gautemala.  20. 

General  Conference.  11.  16,  18,  19,  21, 
22,  23,  24,  27,  28,  29,  30,  33,  42, 
43,  45,  55,  74.  76.  80.  96,  106,  107, 
108,  109,  112,  113,  114,  117,  121, 
124,  125.  134,  141,  145,  148.  151, 
155,  156,  180,  1S7,  189,  195,  196, 
218,  222.  234.  246,  262.  278,  287, 
302,  304.  332.  351. 

General  Conference  Journal.  171. 

General  Minutes.  168. 

General  Rules,  17,  172,  246. 

George.  Bishop,  141,  276. 

Georgia  Conference,  31.  35. 

German  .Mission  Conference,  167, 
278  ;  Sketch  of,  169. 

German  work.  20,  48. 

Gladstone,  William  E.,  145. 

Glenn,  E.  M..  263. 

Glenn.  John  W..  188. 

(llenn,  W.  F.,  189. 

Godbey.  V.  A.,  189,  309. 

Gober,  W.  R..  188. 


Index-. 


585 


Goddard,  O.  E..  263. 

Goldy,  J.  F„  261. 

Goodale,  W.  H.,  39. 

Goodman,  John,  253. 

Goodsell,  Bishop,  64,  333. 

Gorman,  William,  257. 

Goucher,  J.  F.,  117,  120,  126. 

Gould,  John,  373. 

Graded  Series,  158. 

Graham,  E.  Ft.,  253. 

Granbery,  Bishop,   27,   43,   117,  186, 

231,  232,  238,  323. 
Greek  Testament,  129. 
Green,  A.  L.  P.,  29,  30,  290. 
Green,  Walford.  136,  372. 
Greensboro     College     for  Women, 

Sketch  of,  503,  504,  505. 
Grenada  College,  Sketch  of,  529,  530. 
Griffin,  W.  S.,  145. 
Grissom,  W.  L.,  328. 
Groome,  P.  L.,  328. 
Guilford  Courthouse,  33. 

Haddock,  George  C,  61. 
Hague  Tribunal,  125,  350. 
Haigh,  Henry,  136,  .332,  338,  339,  345, 
346. 

Hamill,  H.  M.,  329,  368,  369. 
Hamill,  H.  P.,  189. 
Hamilton,  Bishop,  173,  345. 
Hamilton,  Jefferson,  12,  35,  265. 
Hamilton,  Mrs.  J.  D.,  281. 
Hammond,  J.  D.,  110,  187,  230. 
Hammond,  Mrs.  J.  D.,  286. 
"Handbook  of  Logic,"  229. 
Handsome  churches,  181. 
Hanley,  Hon.  J.  Frank,  271. 
Hanna,  W.  A.,  370. 
Hannah,  John  W.,  132. 
Hard,  Manley  S.,  209. 
Hardy,  G.  S.,  263. 
Hargiss,  S.,  188. 

Hargrove,  Bishop,  27,  117,  153,  186, 

204,  205. 
Hargrove,  Mrs.  R.  K.,  286. 
Harless,  C.  N..  263. 
Harnack,  Adolph,  256. 
Harp,  R.  J.,  366. 
Harrell,  J.  H.,  188. 
Harris,  Bishop,  61. 
Karris,  G.  W.  D.,  188. 
Harris,  Gov.  N.  E.,  309,  311. 
Harris,  S.  R.,  120. 
Harris,  W.  L.,  14. 
Harrison,  President  Benjamin,  87. 
Harrison,  W.  P.,  19,  27,  52,  56,  60,  85, 

130,  131,  143. 
Hartley,  Marshall,  136. 
Hartzell,  Bishop,  135. 
"Haus  und  Herd,"  133. 
Haven,  William  I.,  365. 
Hawaii,  72. 
Hay,  S.  R.,  263. 
Hayes,  George  H.,  188,  328. 
Hayes,  Mrs.  Juliana,  2S2,  283. 
Haygood,  Bishop,  27,  84,  85,  127,  128, 

129,  153,  158,  160,  212. 
Head,  Miss  Mabel,  281. 
Head,  Nelson,  188. 
Headlee,  S.  S.,  202. 
Hebrew  Mission,  79. 
Hedding,  Bishop.  141. 
Heidt,  J.  W.,  189,  328. 
Helm,  Lucinda  B.,  165,  284,  285,  286. 
Henderson,  Arthur,  33  8. 
Henderson,  Bishop,  335. 
Henderson,  James,  253. 


Henderson-Brown  College,  Sketch  of, 
530.  531. 

Hendrix,   Bishop,   51,   110,   143,  187, 

272,  346,  357. 
Hendrix  College,  Sketch  of,  495,  496. 
Henkle,  Moses  M.,  161. 
Henry,  Patrick,  59. 
Henshaw,  S.  S.,  346. 
Herben,  S.  J.,  212,  253. 
Hernandez,  Alejo,  36. 
Herrick,  Sophia  Bledsoe,  56. 
Hilburn,  J.  P.,  263. 
Hill,  Walter  B.,  39. 
Hindman,  J.  R.,  39. 
Hinemon,  J.  H.,  189. 
Hiner,  Robert,  188. 
Hingeley,  J.  B.,  337. 
Hinton,  J.  W.,  56,  200. 
"History    of    Alabama  Methodism," 

233. 

"History  of  Methodism,"  60,  368. 
"History   of   Methodism    in  Georgia 

and  Florida,"  326. 
"History  of  Methodism  in  Missouri," 

131. 

"History  of  Methodism  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast,"  233. 

"History  of  Mexico."  236. 

"History  of  Old  Baltimore  Confer- 
ence," 233. 

"History  of  Organization  of  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,"  58. 

"History  of  the  Revision  of  the  Dis- 
cipline," 99. 

Hitchcock,  Luke,  173. 

Hitt,  W.  D.,  110.  150. 

Hiwassee  College,  365. 

Hobson,  Captain,  358. 

Hocart,  LePasteur,  347. 

Holder,  J.  N.,  263. 

Holiness  movement,  90. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  254. 

Holston  Colleges,  Sketch  of,  512. 

Holston  Conference,  Sketch  of,  391. 
392,  393,  394. 

Holt,  Asa,  39,  117. 

Holy  Club,  74. 

Heme  Mission  Board,  165,  284,  354. 

Honda,  Bishop,  221,  271. 

Hood,  R.  W..  263. 

Hopkins,  I.  S.,  366. 

Hori,  Minekitsu,  272. 

Hornabrook,  John,  338. 

Hoss,  Bishop,  14,  85,  117,  120,  127, 

147,   148,   162,   172,   187,   260,  345, 

347,  358. 
House,  John  F.,  36. 
House  of  Lords,  258. 
Houston,  General  Sam,  130. 
Howard-Payne    College,    Sketch  of, 

519. 

Howell.  R.  P.,  189. 

Hughes,  Bishop  E.  H.,  251.  253. 

Hughes,  Bishop  M.  S.,  364. 

Hughes,  Hugh  Price,  68,  69,  106,  137, 

215,  216. 
Hughes,  Maldwin,  347. 
Hughes,  W.  H.,  188. 
Hull  House  Mission,  169. 
Hunnicutt,  W.  L.  C,  328. 
Hunt,  A.  S.,  20. 
Hunt,  Sanford,  64,  93,  133. 
Hunt,  William,  260. 
Hunter,  Andrew,  59,  144,  186,  197. 
Huntington,  DeWitt  C,  184. 
Hurlbut,  J.  L.,  64,  135. 
Hurst,  Bishop,  85,  209. 


580  History  of 


Hutchison,  John  S.,  328. 

Hymn  and  Tune  Book,  19,  99. 

Hymn  Book,  53,  54. 

Hymnal,  Joint  Commission  on,  54. 

Hyer,  R.  S.,  189. 

Illinois  Conference.  11,  20. 

Independent  Methodist  Church,  40,  70. 

India,  64,  93,  173. 

Indian  Mission  Conference,  132. 

Indian  Reservations,  172. 

Indiana,  19,  20. 

Treland,  Archbishop  of,  33  4. 

Irish  Methodist  Church,  39,  103,  104, 

216,  217,  253,  259,  260. 
Ivey,  T.  N.,  162,  274. 

Jackson,  George,  331. 
Jamestown  Tercentenary,  223. 
Janes,  Bishop,  14. 
Japan,  46. 

Japan    Methodist    Church,    79,  220, 

221.  249,  272,  360. 
Japan  Mission  Conference,  Sketch  of, 

470,  471. 
Japanese  Immigration,  223. 
Jarratt,  Devcreux.  29. 
Jefferson  Medical  College,  31. 
Jenkins,  Ebenezer,  216. 
Jennings,  H.  C,  135,  253. 
Jennings,  M.  S.,  120. 
Jester,  L.  L.,  263. 
Jewell,  H.,  188. 
John,  I.  C.  52,  85,  133,  280. 
Johnson,  H.  F.,  58. 
Johnson,  Simpson,  259,  346. 
Johnson,  W.  C,  188,  290. 
Johnston,  F.  S.  H..  189. 
Johnston,  H.  B..  263. 
Jones,  J.  G.,  186. 
Jones,  R.  W.,  117. 
Jones,  Sam  P.,  167,  243,  244. 
Joyce,  Bishop,  64,  24  7. 
Junaluska,  354. 

Kansas  City,  88. 
Kansas  Mission  Conference.  132. 
Kavanaugh,  Bishop,  49. 
Kavanaugh,  Mrs.  H.  H.,  283. 
Keener,   Bishop,   19,  30,  45,   86,  142, 

186,  203,  204,  205,  226,  237,  325. 
Keener,  J.  O.,  189. 
Keener,  Mrs.  J.  C,  283. 
Keener,  S.  S.,  189,  328. 
Kelley,  C.  H.,  106,  215,  340,  341. 
Kelley,  D.  C,  98,  124,  282,  290.  322. 
Kelley,  M.  B.,  263. 
Kelley,  Mrs.  Lavinia.  2S2.  283. 
Kelley,  W.  V.,  135.  174,  212,  253,  337. 
Kelley-Hargrove  Case,  124. 
Ken,  Bishop,  53. 
Kendrick,  Mrs.  George  P.,  286. 
Kennebec,  76. 
Kennedv.  J.  S.,  110,  186. 
Kenney.  J.  J.  N.,  189. 
Kentucky,  29. 

Kentucky    Conference,    25,    30,  101; 

Sketch  of,  39  4,  39  5,  396. 
Kentucky  Wesleyan  College.  Sketch 

of,  515,  516. 
Kern,  J.  A.,  189. 
Key,  Bishop,  51,  268. 
Kidder,  Daniel  P.,  101. 
Kilgo,  Bishop,  211.  274. 
Kilgore.  James,  263. 
King  Edward  VII.,  178. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  204. 


Methodism . 


•  Kirby,  J.  L.,  160. 

Kirkland,  J.  H.,  110,  301. 
Kirkland,  W.  D.,  132,  160. 
Korea  Mission,  Sketch  of,  471. 
Kynett,  A.  J.,  64,  135,  173. 

"Lacon,"  60. 

Labor  questions,  248. 

Lafferty,  John  J.,  235. 

Lagrange    College,    166;    Sketch  of, 

516,  517. 
Laity  rights.  266,  267,  361. 
Lamar,  A.  J.,  154,  230,  274. 
Lamar,   Associate   Justice,    240,  242, 

295. 

Lamar,  President,  130. 
Lambuth,  J.  W.,  95,  97. 
Lambuth,  Bishop,  98,   127,   148,  187, 

230,  274,  280,  281. 
Lambuth,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  281,  282. 
Lambuth,  Mrs.  VV.  1 1.,  284. 
Lander  College,  203:  Sketch  of,  531, 

532.  533. 
Lander,  Samuel.  203 
"Lands  of  the  Orient.'*  323. 
Law,  Fundamental.  13. 
Lawson,  M.  E.,  263. 
Lay  leaders,  359. 
Lay  representation,  ]2,  13. 
Laymen's      Missionary  Movement. 

280,  353. 
Lecky,  9. 

Lee,  James  W.,  374. 

Lee,  Jesse,  76,  167,  265. 

Lee,  LeRoy  M.,  13,  28,  113,  11  I. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  131,  323,  369. 

Leesburg,  32. 

Leftwich,  W.  M.,  208. 

Legal   Hundred,   103,   104,   105,  106. 

136,  185. 
Leigh,  Samuel,  71,  343. 
Leonard,  A.  B.,  64,  93,  135,  253,  3  47. 
Lesser  colored  Churches,  72. 
Lewis,  Bishop,  251,  253. 
Lewis  T.  H.,  120,  270,  347. 
Lewis,  T.  W.,  263. 
Lewis,  W.  B.,  328. 
Lewis,  Walker,  328. 
Lexington,  75,  76. 
Lidgett,  Scott,  338.  347,  348. 
Liebhart,  Henry,  133. 
"Life  of  Bishop  Andrew,"  326. 
"Life  of  Bishop  Asbury,"  3  26. 
"Life  of  Bishop  McKendree,"  50. 
"Life  of  Bishop  Pierce."  326. 
"Life  of  Longstreet,"  269. 
"Life  of  McP^errin,"  269. 
"Life  of  Steve  Holcombe,"  368. 
"Life  of  Summers,"  269. 
Limited  episcopacy,  361. 
Lincoln,  President,  202. 
Linebaugh,  D.  H.,  263. 
Linfield,  W.  E.  M.,  188. 
Linn,  Joseph,  26. 
Lipscomb.  B.  F.,  189. 
Little    Rock   Conference,    18;  Sketch 

of,  450,  451,  452,  453,  454. 
Littlepage,  S.  C,  370. 
"Living  Christ."  131. 
Lloyd,  W.  F.,  369. 
Logan  College,  Sketch  of.  519,  520. 
Logan  Female  College,  163. 
London,  37,  43,  175. 
London  Times.  41. 
Los  Angeles,  74. 

Los  Angeles  Christian  Advocate,  78. 


Index. 


587 


Los  Angeles  Conference,   Sketch  of, 

459,  4t>0,  461,  462,  403. 
Losee,  William,  67. 

Louisburg  Female  College,  Sketch  of, 
533. 

Louisiana  Conference,  60  ;  Sketch  of. 

426,  427,  428,  429,  430,  431,  432. 
Louisiana  Purchase,  186. 
Louisville    Conference,    26,    67.    58 ; 

Sketch  of,  424,  425. 
Louisville  Convention,  99,  150. 
Lovejoy,  W.  P.,  189,  370. 
Lovely  Lane  Chapel,  43. 
Lcvett,  W.  C,  189. 
Luccock,  Bishop,  271,  336,  346. 
Lyons,  A.  P.,  263. 
Lyons,  J.  A.,  160. 
Lyric  Hall,  245. 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  10. 
MacDonell,  G.  G.  N.,  117,  325. 
ALacDonell,  Robert  W.,  326. 
MacDonell,  Mrs.  R.  W.,  281. 
Maddin,  Percy  D.,  311. 
Maddin,  Thomas,  188. 
Magazine,  Southern,  19. 
Magath,  Julius,  79. 
Magruder,  W.  H.  N.,  38. 
Maguire,  William,  259. 
Mahon,  R.  H.,  188. 
Mains,  George  P.,  131,  253. 
"Making  of  Methodism,  The,"  229. 
Malaysia,  64. 

Mallalieu,  Bishop,  211,  333. 

Malone,  Hon.  T.  H,  292. 

•  Man  of  Galilee,  The,"  129. 

Mann,  E.  G.  B.,  263. 

Mansfield  Female  College,  Sketch  of. 

520,  521,  522. 
Manual  of  Discipline,  13,  37. 
"Manual  of  Methodist  History,"  Cur- 

tiss,  75,  88. 
.Maoris,  The,  260. 
Marriage  service,  362. 
Marshall,  C.  K.,  38. 
Marshall,  Mrs.  A.  L.,  281. 
Martha  Washington  College,  Sketch 

of,  511. 
Martin,  I.  P.,  263. 
Martin,  John  S.,  23  4. 
Martin  College,  Sketch  of,  522,  523. 
Marvin,  Bishop,  16,  20,  23,  131,  170, 

202,  283. 
Marvin  College,  Sketch  of,  534. 
Marvin,  Mrs.  E.  M„  283. 
Marvin,  Fielding,  189. 
Mason,  J.  M.,  188,  327. 
Massey  Hall,  255. 
Masterson  Station,  76. 
Mathews,  John,  238. 
Matthew,  WT.  S.,  227. 
Mayers,  A.  G.,  38. 
Maximilian,  37,  271. 
McAnally,  D.  R.,  131. 
McArthur,  Sir  William,  216. 
McCabe,  Bishop,  64,  93,  135,  247. 
McConnell,  Bishop,  245,  336. 
McCord,  J.  A.,  263. 
McCoy,  Bishop,  273,  274. 
McCoy,  W.  C,  189. 
McCullough,  Joseph,  224. 
McCutcheon,  Dr.,  140. 
McDonald.  Ex-President,  215. 
McDowell,  Bishop,  212,  253. 
McFarland,  Bishop,  212,  337. 


McFerrin,  J.  B„  16,  19,  21,  34,  4  3,  18, 
52,  151,  152,  153,  161,  162,  206,  279, 
280. 

McFerrin,  J.  P.,  L89. 
McGavock,  Mrs.  D.  1 1.,  282,  283. 
McHenry,  William,  2^6. 
Mcintosh,  R.  M.,  39. 
Mclntyre,  Bishop,  251,  253. 
McKendree,    Bishop,    141,    170,  197, 

205,  206,  265,  322. 
McKenzie,  J.  W.  P.,  188. 
McKenzie,  Peter,  139. 
McKinley,  President,  94,  145,  177,  178. 
McLean,  J.  H.,  110. 
McMurry,  W.  F.,  275. 
McMurry,  W.  W.,  208. 
McTeer,  J.  W.,  188. 

McTyeire,  Bishop,  9,  10,  11,  13,  16, 
34,   39,   47,   59,   60,   71,   84,   95,  96, 

100,  126,  162,  205,  206,  237,  240, 
266,  290,  297,  367. 

McTyeire,  Mrs.  H.  N.,  283. 

McVoy,  A.  D.,  208. 

Means,  Alexander,  31,  32. 

Meek,  R.  A.,  238,  263. 

Mellen,  G.  P.,  263. 

Membership  of  Church,  142. 

Memorial  Day,  251. 

Memphis  Conference  Female  Insti- 
tute, Sketch  of,  534,  535. 

Memphis  Conference,  Sketch  of,  422, 
423,  424. 

Memphis  Convention,  291,  293. 

Memphis  resolutions,  291. 

Mendenhall,  J.  W.,  6  5.  101. 

Meridian  College,  Sketch  of,  523,  52  4, 
525. 

Merrick,  Frederick  N.,  4  4. 
Merrill,  Bishop,  117,  211,  247. 
Messick,  B.  M.,  188. 
Methodism,  41. 

Methodist  Advocate,  Sketch  of,  568. 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  57,  68, 

101,  126,  136,  146,  174,  254,  266, 
329,  330,  332,  370,  371. 

Methodist  doctrine,  270. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  20,  40, 
43,  47,  92,  122,  170,  2C8,  245,  374. 

"Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
America,"  49. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Can- 
ada, 4  0. 

Methodist   Episcopal   Church,  South, 

40,  43. 
Methodist  Magazine,  131. 
Methodist  New  Connection,  39. 
Methodist  Press,  The  Weekly,  551. 
Methodist  Protestant  Church,  14,  40, 

65,  119,  120,  122,  250. 
Methodist  Pulpit,  South,  327. 
Methodist  Review,  93,  143,  187,  200. 

229    3  68 

Methodist  Society,  10,  102,  141. 
Methodist  Times,  69. 
Methodist  Union,  131,  250,  271. 
Mexican  Border  Mission  Conference, 

Sketch  of,  470. 
Mexico,  17,  37,  359. 
Midland  Methodist,   Sketch    of,  561, 

562. 

Miller,  C.  W.,  57. 
Miller,  E.  K.,  201. 
Miller,  R.  T.,  117,  120. 
Miller,  W.  G.,  322. 
Million-Guinea  Fund,  257. 
Millsaps  College,  80;  Sketch  of,  488, 
489,  490. 


5SS  History  of 


Millsaps,  R.  W.,  39,  189,  370. 
Milton,  Oregon,  78. 
Ministerial  Loan  Fund.  112. 
Mission  schools,  547,  548. 
Missionary  bishops,  24,  64. 
Missionary  Conference,  255,  328,  329. 
Missionary  Council,  276. 
Missionary  debt,  14. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  354. 
Missionary  Secretary,  53. 
Missionary  Society,  Woman's,  20,  24, 

46,  78,  79. 
Missions,  Board  of,  14,  249,  259,  279, 

282,  283,  359. 
Mississippi  Conference,  26  ;  Sketch  of, 

415,  416. 

Missouri  Conference,  Sketch  of,  443, 

444,  445. 
Mitchell,  A.  H.,  188,  322. 
Mobile,  34. 

Montana  Conference,  20  ;  Sketch  of, 

466,  467. 
Montgomery,  H.  H.,  188. 
Mood,  Francis  Asbury,  58. 
Mood,  R.  G.,  263. 
Moody,  D.  L.,  172. 
Mooney,  Wellborn,  188.  290,  328. 
Moore,  Bishop,  173,  333. 
Moore,  H.  D.,  188. 
Moore,  John  M.,  281. 
Moore,  J.  W.,  263. 
Moore,  L.  W.,  263. 
Moore,  S.  W.,  290. 
Moore,  Warner,  327. 
Morehead,  R.  C,  263. 
Morgan,  R.  J.,  290. 
Morgan,  W.  H.,  153. 
Mormonism,  172. 

Morris  Harvey  College,  Sketch  of, 
525,  526. 

Morris,  J.  C,  85,  147. 

Morrison,  Bishop,  85,  127,  147,  148, 
280,  286. 

Morrison,  H.  C,  244. 

Morrow,  William,  153. 

Morton,  David,  52,  127,  162,  164. 

Moses,  V.  P.,  263. 

Moss,  R.  W.,  372. 

Moulton,  W.  F.,  103,  106,  3  47. 

"Mounds,  Monuments,  and  Inscrip- 
tions," 323. 

Mount  Vernon  Church,  43. 

Mouzon,  Bishop,  274. 

Mouzon,  W.  P.,  188. 

Mowre,  E.  H.,  263. 

Moyers,  Mr.,  193. 

Munsey,  William  E.,  244. 

Murrah,  Bi-hop,  148,  255,  274. 

Murrah,  William,  188. 

Murray,  Thomas  H.,  117. 

Myers,  E.  H.,  35,  36,  201. 

Xagler,  Franz  L.,  173. 

Name  of  Church,  Change  of,  13,  48. 

Nashville,  4  2,  60,  199. 

Necrology,  127. 

Neely,  Bishop,  212,  333. 

Neely.  M.  H.,  188.  328. 

Neely,  Philip  P.,  34. 

Nelms,  W.  L.,  189. 

Nelson,  J.  R.,  439. 

Nettleton,  Joseph,  373. 

New  Connection,  69,  70. 

Now  England,  76. 

New  Guinea,  261. 

New  Mexico  Conference,  78  ;  Sketch 
of.  457,  458,  459. 


Methodism. 


New  Orleans,  35. 

New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  51, 

60,  162,  204,  237,  238  ;  Sketch  of, 

554;  555. 
"New  South,  The,"  254. 
New  York  East  Conference,  14. 
Newfoundland,  67. 
Newman,  Bishop,  64,  173. 
Newman,  Edward,  224. 
Newton,  Robert,  257. 
Newton,  R.  W.,  372. 
Nicene  Creed,  41. 
Nicholson,  Bishop,  253,  337. 
Ninde,  Bishop,  117,  209. 
Nonconformist  Churches,  105,  215. 
North   Alabama   Conference,  Sketch 

of,  412,  413. 
North  Arkansas   Conference,  Sketch 

of,  449,  450. 
North   Carolina   Christian  Advocate, 

Sketch  of,  571. 
North  Carolina  Conference,  Sketch  of, 

388,  389. 
North  Carolina,  University  of,  59. 
North,  F.  M.,  337. 

North  Georgia  Conference,  26,   129  ; 

Sketch  of,  4  08,  409,  410. 
North  Mississippi  Conference,  Sketch 

of,  417,  418,  419,  420,  421. 
North  Texas  Conference,  20 ;  Sketch 

of,  435,  436. 
North  Texas  Female  College,  Sketch 

of,  535. 
Northern,  William,  86,  87. 
Northwest    Texas    Conference,    101  ; 

Sketch  of,  441,  442. 
Northwestern  University,  65. 
Nova  Scotia,  67. 
Nuelsen,  Bishop,  251,  253. 
Nugent,  W.  L.,  38. 

O'Brtant,  J.  H.,  263. 

Odell,  J.  A.  189. 

Ogata,  S.,  346. 

Ohio  Conference,  34. 

Oklahoma,  37,  351. 

Oklahoma    Conferences,    Sketch  of, 

454,  455,  456. 
"Old  and  the  New  Man,  The,"  233. 
"Old  Baltimore"  Conference,  30,  233, 

234. 

Old  Dominion,  The,  80. 

Oldham,  Bishop,  248,  249,  337. 

Olin,  Stephen,  265. 

Oliver,  C.  D.,  296. 

Omaha,  92. 

"Open  Door,"  210. 

Orange  Free  State,  71. 

Order  of  Worship,  55,  63. 

O'Rear,  Edward,  224,  263,  311. 

Oregon,  78. 

Orman,  J.  A.,  328. 

Osborn,  George,  40,  106. 

"Our  Brother  in  Black,"  128. 

Our  Homes,  286. 

Our  Little  People,  159. 

Owen,  F.  A.,  151. 

Owen,  Thomas,  26. 

Pacific  Coast,  95,  96,  85,  233. 
Pacific  Conference,   18,   202 ;  Sketch 

of,  464,  465,  466. 
Pacific  Methodist,  78. 
Pacific  Methodist  Advocate,  79: 

Sketch  of,  564,  565. 
Pacific   Mexican   Mission,   Sketch  of, 

472. 


Index. 


589 


Paine  and  Lane  College,  71. 
Paine,  Bishop,  49,  290. 
Paine  College,  21,  46,  165. 
Paine,  Mrs.  Robert,  283. 
Palmer,  A.  J.,  135. 
Palmer,  B.  M.,  186. 
Palmer,  L.  D.,  38,  153. 
Palmore,  W.  B.,  237. 
Panama  Exposition,  359. 
Pan-American  Methodiot  Conference, 
126. 

Pan-Presbyterian  Council,  40. 
"Paragraph  301,"  126,  145. 
Parker,  A.  P.,  189. 

Parker,  Bishop,  27,  49,  50,  209,  237, 
265. 

Parker,  P.  M.,  189. 

Parker,  F.  S.,  274. 

Parker,  Joseph,  177. 

Parkes,  II.  H„  188. 

Parkes,  J.  L.,  81. 

Parks,  Bishop,  345. 

Parks,  W.  J.,  26,  328. 

Parsonage  Aid  Society,  165,  279. 

Party  politics,  14. 

Pasco,  Senatoi',  190,  191,  192. 

Pastoral  Address,  18,  87,  90. 

Pastoral  Conference,  105. 

Patterson,  I.  S.,  2G3. 

Patterson,  W.  M.,  295. 

Pattison,  Governor,  84. 

Paul,  D'Arcy,  38. 

Payne,  C.  H.,  65,  173. 

Payne,  Moses  U.,  46. 

Peabody  College,  308,  311. 

Peak,  A.  S.,  347. 

Pearce,  E.  H.,  370. 

Pearse,  Mark  Guy,  69,  106,  215. 

Peck,  J.  O.,  64,  S3,  133. 

"Pedagogy,"  Chair  of  Religious,  159. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  30. 

Penobscot,  76. 

Pepper,  J.  R.,  189,  281. 

Perfect  love,  91. 

Perks,  Sir  Robert  W.,  68,  215,  257, 

338,  346. 
Peterson,  J.  A.,  95,  98. 
Petty,  Bishop,  147. 
Philippines,  117. 
Phillips,  Bishop,  57,  345. 
Phillips,  John  M.,  64,  65. 
Philpot,  H.  V.,  188. 
Piccadilly.  69. 

Pierce,  Bishop,  28,  49,  50,  374. 

Pierce,  Lovick,  28,  157. 

Pierce,  Mrs.  George  F.,  283. 

Pierce,  T.  R.,  236. 

Pierce,  Walter,  154. 

Pinson,  W.  W.,  275,  280,  281. 

Pitts,  Fountain  E.,  29,  30. 

Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  245. 

Piatt,  Ward,  337. 

Polk,  Trusten,  38. 

Polynesia,  71. 

Pope,  Henry  J.,  106,  215,  259,  340, 
341. 

Pope,  W.  D.,  372. 

Port  Gibson  Female  College,  Sketch 

of,  536. 
Porter,  R.  G.,  328. 
Porto  Rico,  117. 
"Post  Oak  Circuit."  200. 
Potter,  Weyman  H.,  95,  97. 
Potts,  John,  331. 
Pragmatism.  350. 
"Preacher  Himself,  The,"  229. 
Prentice,  George  D.,  201. 


Presbyterian  Church,  25,  76,  348. 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  214. 
Pretty  man,  E.  B.,  328. 
Prettyman,  F.  J.,  263. 
Price,  D.  B.,  263. 
Price,  R.  N.,  188. 
Primary  Teacher,  159. 
Primitive  Methodist  Church,  39,  40. 
Pritchett,  J.  H.,  148,  280. 
Fiobationers,  250. 
Prohibition,  62,  124,  248,  251,  260. 
Propagation  of  Gospel,   Society  for, 
40. 

Prottsman,  W.  M.,  201. 

Publishing  Agents,  53,  93,  225. 

Publishing  building,  77. 

Publishing  House,   46,   55,   151,  152, 

154,  155,  161,  195. 
Pugh,  Arthur  P.,  189. 
Punshon,  Morley,  28,  215. 

Quadrennial  Conferences,  121,  122, 
375. 

Quarterly  Conference,  125. 
Quarterly  Review,  26,  55. 
Quayle,  Bishop,  251,  253,  347. 
Quillian,  W.  F.,  208. 

Raikes,  Robert,  155. 

Raleigh   Christian  Advocate,  Sketch 

of,  551,  552. 
Ralston,  Thomas,  9  5,  98. 
Ramsey,  T.  Y.,  295. 
Handle,  E.  M.,  212,  253. 
Randies,  Marshall,  136. 
Randolph-Macon  College,  26,  27,  32, 

33,  34,  35,  39,  59;  Sketch  of,  479. 

480,  481. 

Randolph-Macon  System  of  Colleges 
and  Academies,  80,  478,  479. 

Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College. 
Sketch  of,  496,  497,  498,  499. 

Rankin,  Miss  Dora,  284. 

Rankin,  George  C,  236. 

Rankin,  Miss  Lochie,  283. 

Rawlings,  E.  H.,  281. 

Read,  G.  W.,  263. 

Redford,  A.  H.,  16,  19,  57,  58,  152. 

Reeves,  E.  C,  189. 

Regester,  E.  V.,  263. 

Reid,  C.  F.,  189,  281,  369. 

Reid,  F.  L.,  189. 

Reid,  John  M.,  133. 

Reid,  N.  F.,  26. 

Reinhardt  College,  Sketch  of,  536, 
537 

Removal  of  Publishing  House.  362. 
Report  on  Vanderbilt  case,  317,  318. 
319,  320. 

Representatives    in   General  Confer- 
ence, 125. 
Republic  of  Texas,  36. 
Restatement  of  faith,  226,  251. 
Restrictive  rules,  109,  113,  134,  265. 
Revivals,  17,  46,  93. 
Reynolds,  D.  T.,  295. 
Reynolds,  J.  H.,  263. 
Rice,  John  A.,  147. 
Richard,  John,  224. 
Richardson,  Frank,  188,  328. 
Richardson,  S.  P.,  167. 
Richmond,  32,  45. 

Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  29,  33, 

.59,  99,  235. 
Rigg,  Dr.  215. 
Riggin,  J.  H.  328. 
Rio  Grande  Conference,  11. 


590  History  of 


Roberts,  Bishop,  141.  276. 

Robertson,  James.  257. 

Robins,  J.  B..  328,  370. 

Robinson,  Bishop,  337. 

Rocky  Mountains.  133. 

Rodgers,  Henry  Wade,  126. 

Rodgers,  Samuel,  131. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  250. 

Roosevelt,  President,  251. 

Ross,  Miss  Lucy,  282. 

Rosser,  Leonidas,  95,  98,  100. 

Roszell,  Samuel,  188. 

Rowe,  J.  C.  189. 

Howell.  N.  W.,  253.  347. 

Rules  of  Church  membership,  258. 

Runciman.  Walter.  258,  338. 

Rush,  John  W.,  188,  208. 

Rush,  W.  M..  208. 

Rusk,  General,  130. 

Russia,  23. 

Russo-Japanese  War,  273. 
Rymer,  Richard,  257. 

Sabbath  Observance.  223. 

Samford,  Governor,  39. 

Samford.  T.  D..  263. 

San  Antonio  Female  College,  Sketch 

of,  537,  538,  539. 
San  Francisco,  95. 
San  Francisco  earthquake,  223. 
Sanders,  W.  T.,  263. 
Saratoga  Springs,  374. 
Sargent,  Thomas  B.,  30. 
Scales,  D.  C.  81. 
Scarritt,  Nathan,  88,  89. 
Scarritt,  Mrs.  Nathan,  286. 
Scarritt  Training  School,  88. 
Searritt-Morrisville  College,  539. 
Schools  in  Brazil,  Sketch  of,  549. 
Schools  in  China,  Sketch  of,  548. 
Schools  in  Cuba.  Sketch  of,  549. 
Schools  in  Japan,  Sketch  of,  548.  549. 
Schools  in  Korea.  Sketch  of,  549. 
Schools  in  Mexico,  Sketch  of,  549, 

550. 

Schools  in   the  Far  West.   544,  545, 
546.  547. 

Schools  of  Southern  Methodism,  474. 

Schuler,  T.  C,  263. 

Scotland,  70. 

Scriptural  holiness.  142. 

Scruggs,  J.  H.,  263. 

Scruggs.  R.  M..  39. 

Seat.  W.  H.,  188. 

Seattle,  95. 

Seay.  Governor.  39. 

Seductive  peace,  A,  35u. 

Sehon,  E.  W.,  16,  34.  279,  280. 

Seney,  George  I.,  128. 

Seniority,  135. 

'•Separation"  of  1844.  21.  34.  44,  46, 

50,  65,  151. 
Settle,  H.  C,  201. 
Sexton,  G.  S.,  263. 
Shands.  G.  D.,  39. 

Shanghai  Branch   Publishing  House, 
154. 

Shangle,  H.  S..  263. 
Sharp,  J.  Albert,  373. 
Sharp,  T.  E.,  263. 
Shaw,  William,  372. 
Shearn  Church,  74. 
Sheldon,  EL  C,  347. 
Sheppard.  W.  H.  H..  222. 
Shipp,  A.  M.,  59. 
Simmons.  J.  C,  232. 


Methodism. 


Simon,  John  S..  251,  270. 
Simpson,  Bishop,  2S,  40,  61.  126. 
Sketches  of  Annual  Conferences,  380. 
Slater  Fund,  128. 
Sledd,  Andrew,  166. 
Sledd,  R.  N,  127,  166. 
Smaller  Methodist  bodies,  65. 
Smart,  R.  D.,  189,  37". 
Smith,  Bishop  A.  Coke,  110,  187,  2:',i. 
232,  238. 

Smith,  Bishop  C.  W.,  212,  245,  251. 
253. 

Smith.  D.  M.,  85.  148,  153.  154,  1  «7. 

230,  274. 
Smith,  G.  G..  326. 
Smith,  Gypsy,  259. 
Smith,  Sydney,  203. 
Smith,  W.  A.,  12,  28.  29,  39,  113. 
Smith,  W.  Hodson,  371. 
Smith,  W.  T.,  135. 
Smith,  W.  W.,  110,  127. 
Smith,  Whitefoord,  95,  99. 
Smithson,  R.,  188. 
Snape,  Alderman.  345. 
Snyder,  H.  N.,  263. 
Society  of  Friends.  105. 
Solomon  Islands.  261. 
"Son  of  Man,  The,"  36S. 
Soochow  University.  169. 
Soule,  Bishop.  16,  30,  52,  76,  141,  150. 

172,   201,   223,   227,   265,   266,  276, 

278. 

South  Africa.  71. 

South     Brazil     Mission  Conference. 

Sketch  of,  469. 
South  Carolina  Conference,  Sketch  of. 

397,  398,  399,  400. 
South   Georgia    Conference,    35,    56  : 

Sketch  of,  404,  405,  406,  407,  408. 
South  Seas,  140. 

Southern  Christian  Advocate,  27,  35. 

132  ;  Sketch  of,  565,  566. 
Southern  College,  Sketch  of,  517,  518. 
Southern  Cross,  71.  260. 
Southern    Methodist    Universitv.  58, 

356  ;  Sketch  of,  477,  478. 
Southern  Review,  55,  56. 
Southern  University,   27  ;   Sketch  of. 

506.  507,  508. 
Southgate,  J.  H.,  263. 
Southwest    Missouri    Conference,  20. 

89;  Sketch  of,  445,  446,  447. 
Southwestern    Book    and  Publishing 

Company.  168. 
Southwestern  University,  5S  :  Sketch 

of,  490,  491,  492,  493. 
Spanish-American  War,  ISO,  245. 
Sparling,  J.  W.,  227. 
Spellmeyer,  Bishop.  212,  333. 
Spencer,  Herbert.  97. 
Spencer,  W.  A,  135,  209. 
Sprague,  Howard,  57,  346. 
St.    Louis    Christian    Advocate,  131, 

168,  237;  Sketch  of,  556,  557. 
St.  Louis  Conference,  22  ;  Sketch  of. 

447,  448,  449. 
Stackhouse,  R.  E.,  263. 
Stahlman,  E.  B.,  190,  192. 
Stamford  College,  Sketch  of,  540.  541. 
Stanford,  Thomas,  95,  101. 
Stanton,  P.  L.,  328. 
Stateler.  L.  B..  132. 
Statesville,  31. 
Statistics,  Methodist,  45,  62. 
Steel.  S.  A..  64,  75,  83.  127.  189. 
Steele.  Mrs.  H.  R..  281. 


Index. 


591 


Stephenson,  T.  Bowman,  68,  87,  105, 

106,  178. 
Stewart,  J.  R.,  82. 
Stockton.  Thomas,  250. 
Stowe,  W.  P.,  64. 
Stradley,  W.  B..  78. 
Strawbridge,  Robert,  67,  216. 
Stringfield,  H.  K.,  26. 
Stringfield,  Thomas,  26,  161. 
Stuart,  George  R.,  244. 
Stubbs,  W.  B„  263,  280. 
Student  Volunteer  Movement,  353. 
Stuntz,  Bishop,  335. 
Sue  Bennett  Memorial  School,  286. 
Sullins,  David,  188. 
Summerfield,  John,  30,  348. 
Summers,  T.  O.,  16,  19,  27,  55,  157, 

160,  162. 
Sunday  School  Department,  46. 
Sunday  School  Editor,  158. 
Sunday  school  literature,  24,  155,  160. 
Sunday  School  Magazine,  159. 
Sunday  School  Union,  156,  157. 
Sunday  school  visitors,  157,  158. 
"Sunset  Views,"  144,  269. 
Support  of  General  Conference,  47. 
Sutherland,  Alexander,  126,  169,  213. 

Taft,  President,  333. 
Tarboux,  J.  W.,  189. 
Taylor,  Bishop,  64,  93,  135,  209. 
Taylor,  Charles,  97. 
Taylor,  S.  Earl,  337. 
Taylor,  Zachary,  32. 
Teacher-Training    Department,  158, 
159. 

Tennessee  Conference,  34,  36,  101, 
123;  Sketch  of,  419,  420,  421. 

Texas  Christian  Advocate,  236  ; 
Sketch  of,  562,  563. 

Texas  College,  71. 

Texas  Conference,  36  ;  Sketch  of,  433, 
434,  435. 

Texas  Mexican  Mission,  Sketch  of, 
471,  472. 

Texas  Woman's  College,   Sketch  of, 

512,  513. 
Theism,  229. 

Theological  and  Homiletical  Monthly, 
166. 

"Theophilus  Walton,"  131. 

Thirkield,  Bishop,  336. 

Thirty-Nine  Articles,  251. 

Thoburn,  Bishop,  64,  93,  169,  249. 

Thomas,  E.  M.,  120. 

Thomas,  F.  M.,  337. 

Thomas,  J.  D.,  39. 

Thompson,  William,  213. 

Thrall,  H.  S.,  36,  130,  201. 

Tigert,  Bishop,  56,  81,  93,  127,  143, 

148,  187,  228,  229,  238,  367. 
Time  limit,  13,  64,  330. 
Tobacco,  Use  of,  267. 
Toland,  Miss  Rebecca,  284. 
"Tongue  of  Fire,"  87,  216. 
Toronto,  95. 

Transylvania  College,  31,  101. 
Trinity  Church,  74. 

Trinity  College,  33.  34,  80  ;  Sketch  of, 

481,  482,  483,  484. 
Trinity  Conference,  20. 
Tucker,  J.  Wofford,  39. 
Tudor,  W.  V.,  188. 
Tuggle,  Philip,  295. 

Twentieth-century  offering,   172,  174, 

181,  210. 
Twenty-Five  Articles,  251. 


Twenty-Third  Article.  143,  225. 
"Two  Methodisms,  The,"  36. 
Two-thirds  vote,  19,  116,  251. 

"Ultra  Vires,"  310. 

Unbelief,  Forms  of,  22. 

Unification,  375,  376. 

Unification  of  Missionary  Boards,  225, 

275,  277. 
Union  of  Churches,  213. 
United  Brethren,  40,  119. 
United  Free  Church,  69. 
United  P"ree  Gospel  Church,  39. 
United  Methodist  Church,  70. 
United  Methodist  Free  Church,  39. 
United  States  Senate,  148,  190,  191, 

193,  194,  195. 
Upper  Canada,  101. 
"Upper  House  of  Methodism,"  141. 
Upper    South    Carolina  Conference, 

Sketch  of,  400,  401,  402. 
University  of  Virginia,  98. 

Vance,  R.  B.,  38. 

Vanderbilt  Board  of  Trust,  296,  297, 
300,  301,  302,  303,  307,  309,  311. 

Vanderbilt,  Commodore,  20,  298;  gift 
of,  297. 

Vanderbilt  University,  59,  61,  111, 
159,  199,  206,  224,  298,  299,  300, 
303,  304,  356,  358  ;  Ownership  of 
Church  in,  305  ;  Alienation  of,  306, 
310. 

Vanderbilt  University  case,  288. 
Vanderbilt    University  Commission, 

224,  306,  308. 
Vanderbilt  University  proviso,  301. 
Vandeventer,  C.  I.,  208,  328. 
Vandiver,  W.  F.,  189. 
Vaughn,  W.  E.,  79,  189. 
Veitch,  E.  R.,  188. 
Veto,  Bishops',  13,  29. 
Vice  President  of  United  States,  194. 
Victoria,  Queen,  178,  258. 
Vincent,  Bishop,  64,  211. 
Vincil,  John  D.,  207. 
Virginia  Conference,  Sketch  of,  385. 
Virginia,  University  of,  26. 
Visitors,  The  bishops  as,  310. 
Vordenbaumen,  Frederick,  167. 

Waco,  58. 

Wade,  T.  S.,  188,  328. 

Wainright,  S.  H.,  189. 

Walden,  Bishop,  211. 

Walker,  George  Williams,  327. 

Walker,  H.  A.  C,  327. 

Walker,  I.  P.,  188. 

Walker,  J.  B.,  188,  263. 

Waller,  D.  J.,  83,  103,  106,  136,  215, 

339,  341. 
Walton,  M.  L.,  120. 
"War  between  the  States,"   32,  44, 

53,  55,  71,  113,  232. 
War  claim,  19,  48,  148,  154,  184,  189, 

190,  191,  192,  195,  196. 
Ward,  Bishop,  228,  230,  238,  280. 
Ware,  Thomas,  150. 
Warren,  Bishop,  247,  333. 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  131. 
Washington,  D.  C,  32. 
Waterhouse,  Bishop,  274. 
Watkins,  A.  F.,  82,  189. 
Watkins,  W.  H.,  188. 
Watkinson,  W.  L.,  106,  136,  215. 
Watson,  Richard,  257. 


592 


History  of  Methodism. 


Watts,  John  E.,  38. 

Watts,  Miss  Mattie,  284. 

Waugh,  Bishop,  36. 

Way  land,  Dr.,  129. 

Wayman,  Bishop,  86. 

Weaver,  Dempsey,  153. 

Weaver,  J.  H.,  189. 

Webb,  W.  R.,  189. 

Weber,  S.  A.,  189. 

Weeks,  A.  J.,  189. 

Werlein,  S.  H..  189. 

Wesley  Bible  Class,  158,  159. 

Wesley  Chapel,  175. 

Wesley,  Charles,  53. 

Wesley  College,  Sketch  of,  539,  540. 

Wesley,  John.  9,  66,  85,  89,  101,  102, 

103,   105,    106,   135,   142,   148,  155, 

172,  211,  216,  258. 
Wesleyan  Christian  Advocate,  Sketch 

of,  557,  558,  559. 
Wesleyan  Conference,  30,  67,  69,  87, 

102,  103,  136. 
Wesleyan    Female    College,    35,  80; 

Sketch  of,  499,  500. 
Wesleyan  Journal,  161. 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  39,  137. 

147,   174,   184,   215,   216,   251,  253, 

256,  258,  270,  339,  372,  373. 
Wesleyan  Minutes,  256. 
Wesleyan  Reform  Union  Church,  39. 

70. 

Wesleyan  Theology,  10. 

Wesleyan  University,  32,  98,  101. 

Wesleyanism,  41,  46. 

West.  Anson,  233,  296. 

West  Indies,  72. 

West,  Joseph  B.,  95,  101. 

West  St.  Louis  Conference,  20. 

West   Texas   Conference,   Sketch  of, 

439,  440,  441. 
Western  North  Carolina  Conference, 

18;  Sketch  of.  390,  391. 
Western  Virginia  Conference,  Sketch 

of,  387. 
Whatcoat,  Bishop,  141. 
Wheat,  J.  L.,  188. 
Wheedon,  D.  D.,  61,  100. 
Wheeler,  Thomas  S.,  263.  - 
Whipple,  J.  W.,  188. 
Whisner,  P.  H..  148,  187,  230. 
White  River  Conference,  144. 
Whitehead,  Paid.  235. 
Whitworth   College,    Sketch   of,  541, 

542,  543. 
Whitworth  Female  College,  58. 
Whitworth,  James,  153. 


Whitworth,  Mrs.  James,  283. 
Wicks,  M.  J.,  290. 
Wightman,  Bishop,  16.  26,  27. 
Wightman.  John  T.,  370. 
Wiley,  E.  E.,  95,  99,  100,  201,  274. 
Wiley,  Mrs.  E.  E.,  286. 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  62. 
Williams,  Robert,  149. 
Williams,  W.  Erskine,  263. 
Williamston  Female  College,  202. 
Wilmot,  Judge,  57. 

Wilson,  Bishop,  15,  27,  77,  169,  176. 

280,  341,  345,  357. 
Wilson,  Bishop  L.  B.,  117,  212. 
Wilson,  Norval,  30,  31. 
Wilson,  R.  P.,  79,  127,  154. 
Winch,  J.  C.  C,  39. 
Winfield.  A.  R.,  59. 

Winton,  George  B.,  162,  187,  230,  281. 

Winton,  G.  M.,  188. 

Wiseman,  Luke,   185,  338,  339,  340, 

With  row,  D.  D.,  331. 

Wofford  College,   27,   99  ;  Sketch  of. 

484,  485,  486,  487. 
Wolseley,  General  Lord,  324. 
Woman's  College  of  Alabama,  Sketch 

of,  500,  501. 
Wood,  W.  B.,  296. 
Woods,  C.  C,  189. 
Woodward  College,  25. 
Worcester,  35. 

World's  Columbian  Exposition,  93. 
World's  P'air,  186. 
World's  Missionary  Conference,  70. 
World's  Parliament  of  Religions,  94. 

Yates,  E.  A.,  328. 
Yeates,  J.  B.,  188. 
York.  Mr.,  33. 
Yoshioka,  Y.,  359. 
Young,  Dinrdale  T.,  228. 
Young  Harris  College,  Sketch  of,  5  43. 
544. 

Young  People's  Guild,  138. 
Young    People's    Movement,    73,  95, 
110. 

Young,  R.  A.,  27,  153.  199,  280,  290. 
Young.  W.  R,  266,  269. 
Youngman,  President,  341. 
Yun,  Prince  T.,  273. 

Zimmerman,  S.  H.,  328. 
Zion's  Herald,  15,  161. 
Zululand,  140. 


f 


